Global risk specialist and founder of UK risk assessment company Maplecroft, Professor Alyson Warhurst has developed an Influenza Pandemic Risk Index to predict the effect and spread of swine flu in different countries.
Professor Warhurst estimates that the United Kingdom, as well as other developed Western nations such as Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, Canada, and Japan top the list in their level of risk of citizens becoming infected by the swine flu.
This is due to their high population densities, urban areas, and major airports. However, these countries are better equipped to respond to the pandemic with measures such as vaccines, as opposed to other less developed regions.
Experts frequently remind that the total number of confirmed cases, now around 36,000 in 77 countries, is many times lower than the actual tally.
Croatia, Cayman Islands, and Palestine’s West Bank have recently reported their first cases.The lives lost, which total at least 163, continue to mount and now extend beyond the Americas with the recent fatality in the UK.
Flu viruses and a host of other diseases are often initially spread in livestock facilities. Frequently, the same conditions that cause the distasteful odor and pollution also contribute to the formation of new bacterial or viral disease.
Supreme Master Television spoke with Dr. Brian Clement, director of the Hippocrates Health Institute in the US who described an animal agriculture situation in the US, which in fact applies to many such operations worldwide.
Dr. Brian Clement – Director of Hippocrates Health Institute, United Kingdom, VEGAN (M): If you’ve ever been, which I was, in the cattle raising area in North America, you
have to shut the windows even if it’s warm outside, because it is a pungent, disgusting smell of bacteria.
There is so much feces and so much antibiotics and bacteria and disease in the feces of these animals,and they are polluting the environment. In the state of North Carolina in the United States, it is so polluted because of raising of hogs there that the rivers and water streams there are 80 percent highly contaminated and not suited for human consumption anymore.
When you do one thing wrong, it has a domino effect, and the day mankind stopped being plant-based eaters and started to consume animals, the domino effect really started.
VOICE: We thank Professor Warhurst and Dr. Clement for highlighting the risks countries face in addressing the swine flu along with a reminder of the cleaner plant-based diet.
Our sympathies go to the loved ones of those who have succumbed to swine flu, and our prayers for the rapid recovery of all those currently experiencing its sorrowful effects.
May our society quickly find health through wholesome vegan lifestyles for the benefit of ourselves and our children.
References:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20090612/UK-tops-the-list-of-countries-at-extreme-risk-to-the-spread-of-swine-flu.aspx
http://maps.maplecroft.com/loadmap?template=map&issueID=507