SHOOT: Shutdown makes perfect sense - to slow the spread, ease the strain. The obvious thing to do is to shut down international air travel for 1-3 months. Expensive, and the airlines will cry foul, but what if a deadlier strain emerges? The nightmare scenario is that the mild flu recombines with highly pathogenic H5N1, which has a kill rate of over 60%.
Schools, colleges and cinemas in the Indian city of Mumbai have temporarily closed in a bid to limit the spread of the H1N1 virus. Schools and colleges will remain shut for a week and cinemas for three days.
The city, India's commercial capital, is in Maharashtra state, which has seen 11 of India's 19 swine flu deaths - three in Mumbai alone.
Authorities say that public pressure led them to order the closures, but stressed that people should not panic.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan told a television channel that the temporary closure was "only a prevention measure".
"There is no panic...we are going according to the wishes of the people and that is why we are shutting down for about seven days," he told CNN-IBN.
Most of India's confirmed cases of swine flu have been among people who have returned from overseas travel.
Passenger screening has been introduced across India's main 22 international airports.
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1 comment:
The caveat to shutting down international air travel is this - when? When will it be effective? When will it be necessary? The counterargument is the money it will cost. But there is also a health care cost. Difficult one, and one I fear we will respond to later than we need to.
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