Public Health

File this under "d'oh!" British doctors have begun to advise against having "swine-flu parties" meant to develop immunity to the illness, the BBC reports:

Reports have emerged of people intentionally mixing with friends who have flu.

Their reasoning is that it is best to be infected before the winter when the virus could become more deadly.

Does this qualify for a Darwin Award?

Anne Applebaum has an interesting piece over at Slate arguing that while the reaction to swine flu may have been overblown, we should ultimately be grateful for it:

Before "that panic was ridiculous" becomes the conventional wisdom, let's be frank about it: Where infectious diseases are concerned, panic is good. Panic is what we want. Without panic, nothing happens. Up to 500 million people will get malaria this year, and more than 1 million of them will die, mostly in very poor countries. Yet there is no fear of malaria in the rich world; there is no hysterical media coverage, and thus there is still no satisfactory prevention or cure.

By contrast, designs for preventions and cures for swine flu are already, after a mere two weeks of hyperattention, well on track. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not only developed a test kit to detect the presence of the H1N1 virus that causes the flu; it has already shipped this test kit to all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and several other countries. Genetic sequences of the virus have been analyzed and databased. A vaccine will probably be ready in time for flu season next fall. Boxes of Tamiflu have been transported to guarded warehouses around the globe, where they await distribution.[...]

if the H1N1 virus mutates into something really dangerous, we'll all be in trouble. But not in as much trouble as we would be if it hadn't been for that brief, possibly ludicrous but nevertheless useful moment of mass hysteria that brought us such terrific headlines over the past couple of weeks.

All of this is true. But I'm not sure about the conclusion. First, I don't really understand Applebaum's argument that infectious disease, in particular, are an issue that benefits from public hysteria as opposed to any other threat. If the media was doing a public service by treating thirty deaths in Mexico like the black death, shouldn't they be trying to work people into a panic over nuclear terrorism or global warming? The argument that "Without panic, nothing happens" could apply to any number of very real threats, but I'd still prefer not to live in a state of perpetual terror.

Beyond that, is a state of panic really the best time to be making critical decisions? There were certainly some rational government responses to the flu. But there were also quite a number that were really, really stupid. Thankfully, the U.S. government resisted the urge to do anything too drastic in response to swine flu, (congress wasn't exactly a big help) but from Japanese Internment to Gitmo, the United States has done some very regrettable things during times of high public fear. I'm not sure it's wise to make it a regular thing. I also think its likely that the hysteria over the swine flu outbreak could make us less likely to take it seriously if a real pandemic should emerge.

This has to qualify as the most dangerously stupid swine-flu overreaction yet:

Haitian officials rejected a Mexican aid ship carrying 77 tons of much-needed food aid because of ''unfounded'' swine flu fears, Mexico's ambassador said Wednesday.

The Mexican navy ship El Huasteco was to arrive May 2 in Port-au-Prince carrying rice, fertilizer and emergency food kits to help the impoverished country respond to chronic hunger and devastating tropical storms.

But Mexican Ambassador Zadalinda Gonzalez y Reynero said Haitian officials told her April 29 they would not accept the ship, which was still in Mexican waters near the Yucatan peninsula at the time.

''The crew was in perfect health and there was no risk at all,'' Gonzalez y Reynero told The Associated Press, adding that the cargo and 64 sailors aboard the ship had all been screened in Mexico.

24 percent of children in Haiti suffer from chronic undernutrition. Glad the country has its priorities in order.

"We should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," Israeli deputy health minister Yakov Litzman -- an ultra-Orthodox Jew -- said April 27. He stated that the reference to pigs is offensive to Jews and Muslims, whose respective religions prohibit consumption of pork. Pork producers -- likely worried about their product's image -- also have reservations about the name "swine flu."

Of course, Mexicans probably find "Mexican flu" offensive, but the name does seem to fit with the tradition of naming flu pandemics after the places where they were originally identified. On the other hand, there's debate about whether the current swine flu even originated in Mexico. "It was a human who brought this to Mexico," the Mexican ambassador to China told the New York Times, saying that the person was from someplace in "Eurasia." (The virus contains part of a swine flu virus of Eurasian origin.)

Meanwhile, "North American influenza" is the name suggested by the World Organisation for Animal Health. Additionally, "H1N1 virus" was the term used by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at an April 28 news conference. They avoided using "swine flu" because they didn't want to mislead people into thinking they could get the illness by eating pork.

Whatever you want to call it, check out FP's latest photo essay, "Pig Panic," about the true "Spring Break Gone Wrong."

RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images

Bill Easterly flags this article from Kenya's Daily Nation:

Mosquito net manufactures are teaming up with the provincial administration and village elders in several parts of Kenya in an effort to apprehend and prosecute people who use the products for purposes other than covering beds.

According to Dr Elizabeth Juma, who is the head of malaria control under the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, there has been evidence of people turning the nets into fishing gear especially in Nyanza Province. Now a different group has discovered another lucrative business venture, and are using the nets to make wedding dresses.

Easterly notes: "Net promoters seem to consistently underestimate the challenge of spreading the scientific knowledge about the risks of getting malaria from mosquito bites."