As we brace ourselves for the beginning of summer next week in Tehran the southern hemisphere of the world is getting ready for winter or the flu season. A three-month-old baby became the first victim of swine flu in Argentina as the number of cases of H1N1-A virus has been climbing in Argentina and neighboring Chile.

The rising number of countries declaring their first case of the swine flu prompted the World Health Organization to declare the first pandemic of the 21st century last week. In a statement on Monday WHO said that 76 countries had reported a total of 35,928 cases of virus, with 163 deaths.
Definitions
The WHO definition of “influenza pandemic” ignores the number of cases and deaths. Nowadays it requires “sustained chains of human-to-human transmission leading to communitywide outbreaks” in two parts of the world. For example, outbreaks of swine flu in two South American countries and somewhere in China could qualify as a pandemic. No deaths required.
As for the definition of the disease: “Swine flu is a systemic viral disease that has emerged with a new strain of influence A virus (H1N1) and can spread among humans”, said Dr. Mehrdad Hasibi, of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
Part swine, part human, part avian this strain of influenza has travelled across borders. Pigs are susceptible to bird flu and in some rare cases a hog can be infected with more than one virus at a time. When that happens the genes have a chance to mix together in innumerable ways and in this case to concoct an entirely new strain that has the power to spread from pig to human to human.
Dr. Allison McGeer is the director of infectious disease control at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. During the early stages of the outbreak last March, she forecasted a global pandemic: “We know that influenza viruses don’t need aircraft. They may find aircraft convenient, like people do. But they don’t need them and there have been a whole series of studies showing that closing borders, travel restrictions and screening at the borders don’t work.”
The old fashioned seasonal flue strikes every nation yearly and kills an estimated 250,000 to 500,000. According to WHO the mildest pandemics of the 20th century killed at least a million people worldwide. The worst influenza pandemic in history, the Spanish flu of 1918-19, killed about 50 million people.
Despite of its name the flu probably originated in the U.S., but it was called Spanish flu because at the time, newspapers were censored in the countries that were at war. So in the U.S., England, France and Germany, though people were sick and dying, there was literally no mention of the flue. Spain, however, was neutral in WWI, so newspapers there carried out reports of the epidemic.
Counter measures
The declaration of pandemic has prompted governments everywhere to take expensive measures of precaution. Iran set up its first Swine Flu Committee in the first week of May. Deputy Health Minister Hamid Reza Rakesh announced that Iranian drug companies are currently producing anti-viral drug for the treatment of bird flu which can also be used for the treatment of swine flu.
All international airports in the country have put into effect quarantine plan in order to control the spread of swine flu. According to a report by PressTV the Iranian airport authorities had implemented a quarantine plan for about 60 foreign passengers after observing swine-flu-like symptoms.
Head of the Disease Control at Iran’s Health Ministry Mohammad Mehdi Gouya said all the 60 passengers were cleared after “medical analysis and checkups showed the symptoms are only like swine-flu symptoms.”
“We have not restricted flights into Iran because the country does not run any direct flights to Mexico or the U.S.,” Mr. Gouya added.
Hong Kong will reach peak flu season in two to four weeks time. Countries located in the south of the equator are also entering the winter months and the traditional flu season. Chile and Argentina are examples.
So far there have been no known cases of confirmed swine flu infections in Iran. However, this does not mean officials should let their guard down. The number of swine flu cases is expected to increase as the flu season approaches