"The World Health Organization announced Thursday it will stop using the term "swine flu" to avoid confusion over the danger posed by pigs. The policy shift came a day after Egypt began slaughtering thousands of pigs in a misguided effort to prevent swine flu.

WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said the agriculture industry and the U.N. food agency had expressed concerns that the term "swine flu" was misleading consumers and needlessly causing countries to ban pork products and order the slaughter of pigs.

"Rather than calling this swine flu ... we're going to stick with the technical scientific name H1N1 influenza A," Thompson said."

Telegraph .co.uk

Swine flu: 'All of humanity under threat', WHO warns

The World Health Organisation has warned that "all of humanity is under threat" from a potential swine flu pandemic and called for "global solidarity" to combat the virus.

BBC News

Mexico shuts down to control flu

Mexico has begun a five-day shutdown of parts of its economy in a bid to slow the spread of swine flu.

Non-essential government services have halted and many businesses like cinemas and restaurants are closed. Traditional May Day rallies have been cancelled.

Mexican officials say the spread of the virus - suspected in more than 160 deaths - is slowing, but international experts are more cautious.

China has now confirmed its first case, taking the tally of nations hit to 14.

A Mexican man who had travelled to Hong Kong via Shanghai tested positive for the virus, said Hong Kong's leader, Donald Tsang.

The hotel in which the man briefly stayed in Hong Kong has been cordoned off and the alert level raised to emergency, although the authorities have urged residents not to panic.

In cases outside Mexico the effects of the virus do not appear to be severe, although one death of a Mexican child has been confirmed in the US.

The WHO has set its pandemic alert level at five - but says it has no immediate plans to move to the highest level of six.

OpEd News.com

Indonesian Health Minister Says Swine Flu Might Have Been Man-Made

MSNBC

Homeland Security Issues Alert On Mandatory Quarantine Procedures

The Department of Homeland Security has sent out an alert to health care providers outlining how BATF, FBI, and U.S. Marshals will be called upon to impose mandatory quarantines in the event of a widespread swine flu outbreak in the U.S.

According to the report, "DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: "The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines."

The memo states, "U.S. Customs and Coast Guard Officers assist in the enforcement of quarantine orders. Other DOJ law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may also enforce quarantines. Military personnel are not authorized to engage in enforcement."

However, a separate Defense Department planning document on dealing with pandemics states that the Pentagon will use the forces at its disposal to assist in "quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic" and aid in "efforts to restore and maintain order."

As we reported yesterday, so-called "involuntary isolation" is already being enforced in certain areas of the United States. The state's health director in North Carolina, Dr. Jeffrey Engel, said that authorities were already involuntarily isolating patients who may have the swine flu virus. He refused to divulge the location of where the victims were being quarantined.

Do Not Take A

Swine Flu Vaccine!

From Patricia Doyle, PhD

4-25-9

I am making a plea to everyone who reads this, please, please do not take any vaccine that is purported to 'prevent' this flu.

Remember 1976 and the so called Swine Flu outbreak that was purported to be a coming pandemic? It only infected recruits at Ft. Dix. Why? Because I believe that the so called Swine Flu virus infected the recruits due to the vaccines they were given. Whether the government developed the Swine Flu 1976 virus and infected the recruits as a means to test the public to see if people would comply with a call to take vaccination against Swine Flu, or the recruits became infected via contaminated vaccine they were given as part of the recruit regimen, that outbreak was as phony as they come. I was one of the people duped into taking a Swine Flu shot and it made me so sick. I was sick in bed for three months after taking the vaccine.

Do not take seasonal flu vaccine if you are told that it could help prevent this brand new Swine Flu variant. It won't do a thing to prevent this flu. What it will do is serve up new genetic material to the Swine Flu virus that I have dubbed Spanish Flu 2, the Sequel. The Spanish Flu variant will use the gene sequences in the vaccine in humans to develop more of the changes that make the virus more readily infect humans. We do not want to give this virus more human genetic material so that it will infect humans more readily person to person. This is what vaccinated individuals do for pandemic strains.

There is also a safety issue in any experimental vaccine, much like the one in 1976. Some people even feel that such a vaccine for pandemic strain might require more than one vaccination which could actually be a binary set up. The first shot might just add some genetic code that stays dormant in the body until one gets the second vaccine shot which then serves to only cause infection. It could trigger Guillain-barre syndrome, Typhus or some other condition.

An Influenza vaccine does not protect or prevent a person from contracting flu. It is purported to, maybe, prevent some complications of flu and maybe shorten duration. I am not even sure it does that. Personally, I feel the vaccine weakens our immune system and also sickens us due to contaminants in the vaccine. I feel that people can better protect themselves by washing hands often and thoroughly. People should also use protective gloves when out and about during epidemics. Don't be afraid of "looking odd." I would not be ashamed to use a mask and gloves. I see that the Mexicans are using them.

A big problem during a pandemic is that these simple supplies will become extremely scarce awfully quickly. Stock up now. Medical supplies. personal hygene supplies and don't forget fido, or any other pet. Once a pandemic hits, it will be too late to stock up. Water, too.

We may lose clean water and electric power, so be prepared.

So, please, people, don't take any vaccines offered. they could kill you before any virus kills you.

Pat Doyle

Patricia A. Doyle DVM, PhD Bus Admin, Tropical Agricultural Economics Univ of West Indies Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message board.