A bird's eye view

This week's The Economist's insightful editorial on the pandemic follows the magazine's birds-eye view style. It correctly points to the next Winter as the main worry. That is, next month for countries in the southern hemisphere!. It contrasts the couple of hundred confirmed deaths so far attributed to the swine flu to the 30,000 deaths caused by the seasonal flu every year in the U.S., acknowledging that the "lack of proper tests" prevents an accurate mortality count in Mexico.

Will enough of the "proper" tests be available north of the border?

The "common" flu test: the rapid antigen test, itself in short supply these days, might not be of much help. The amplified molecular test is now available in Public Health labs, but these facilities could not possibly handle the demand. The Economist's editorial starts with the saying that no battle-plan survives contact with the enemy. In the plan to deal with the upcoming pandemic somehow we forgot to recognize that the thousands of hospital and private laboratories in the U.S., if equipped with the proper technology could, in short notice, change to the new primers and detection probes to fit the emerging flu virus recombinant and, within days, be ready to make a crucial contribution to containment efforts by providing the "proper" test.

Update: the CDC just issued a page listing Internet social tools related to the swine flu epidemic. Other web resources had been listed here.