the safest location for families to be was in their own home

Mexico is officially shut down! The Mexican government has issued an order that its citizens must stay at home for a five day period to stop the rapid spread of the swine flu pandemic which is estimated to have infected around 2,500 people.

The order which came from President Felipe Calderon means that only essential government offices and businesses will continue to work until the threat of the swine influenza virus passes. Well over 150 people in Mexico have now died from the H1N1 version of the swine influenza in Mexico.

The President of Mexico said that the safest location for families to be was in their own home and that moving around would increase the chances of the virus spreading.

The Head of the World Health Organization Ms. Margaret Chan said that “all of humanity” was now “under threat” and that all nations should “immediately activate” emergency pandemic plans.

The World Health Organization has upped the Alert Level to Number Five and the State of Texas declared a national disaster. If the virus starts to spread rapidly in another continent such as Europe the WHO will put the pandemic up to Level Six signaling the start of a worldwide influenza pandemic meaning that the problem is as dangerous as the Spanish influenza virus was.

Ms Chan also emphasized the importance of large amounts of antiviral medication such as Relenza and Tamiflu and urged drug companies to be ready to manufacture more of them. Relenza is made by GlaxoSmithKline and Tamiflu is made by Roche both of whom have already donated large amounts of their drugs to the World Health Organization to be used in poorer nations.

Drug companies are also busy trying to come up with a vaccine which will prevent people from getting the swine influenza virus in the first place. It is likely to take between 6 months and one year before the vaccine can be produced commercially.