The Health Ministry opened a hotline Thursday morning to field questions from the public about the swine flu. The barrage of phone calls during the hotline’s first hour temporarily overloaded the switchboard.
Dr. Danny Leor, director of the Health Ministry’s Disaster Management Division, explained to Voice of Israel government radio that while the callers were not in a state of panic, they did express their concerns. The three most popular questions that the Ministry’s hot line received during its first hour of operation were:
- Has the Israeli government issued any travel warnings?
- Should I send my child to school if one of the classmates was infected with swine flu?
- Is there a problem eating pig? (Many immigrants from the former Soviet Union eat pig products frequently.)
Dr. Leor stated that the Israeli government has not issued any travel warnings. However, the Health Ministry has “recommended” that unless Israelis have urgent reasons to travel to Mexico, they should postpone their trip.
“There is no problem sending a child to school, even if a classmate has been infected with swine flu,” Dr. Leor said, explaining that a person’s immunity system builds up resistance to numerous viruses.
Most surprising was the number of callers who wanted to know whether they could eat pig, the non-kosher animal that has been a symbol of disgust for Jews throughout the ages.
Dr. Leor responded to callers, “There is no ‘problem’ in eating pig, even if the pig was infected with swine flu.” He clarified that the name swine flu is a misnomer. In reality, the current outbreak is spread by contact with other people.
The 2009 flu outbreak in humans is due to a new strain of influenza A, virus subtype H1N1, that derives in part from human influenza, avian influenza, and two separate strains of swine influenza. The origins of this new strain are unknown, and the disease has not been isolated in swine.
The sale of pig meat has increased sharply, following the wave of immigration of non-Jews from the former Soviet bloc the past decade.
Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman stated earlier this week that the disease should be referred as Mexican flu, because he said it more accurately describes the origin of the disease and because the swine flu name is offensive to Jewish and Muslims. However, Mexican Foreign Ministry officials felt offended by the suggestion to link their country with the disease.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon told citizens to stay home starting Friday for a five-day partial shutdown of the country, after the World Health Organization raised its alert to Phase 5 out of a possible 6, indicating a global pandemic was imminent. In his first televised address since the crisis erupted last week, Calderon told Mexicans to stay home with their families. The country will suspend non-essential work and services, including some government ministries, from May 1-5.
On Wednesday, Mexico’s Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova announced another 17 deaths in the country, with swine flu named as the probable cause. The figure brings the total number of probable swine flu deaths in Mexico to as many as 176, a Health Ministry spokesman said.
However, according to the statistics published at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday by the World Health Organization, which uses much stricter criteria, "Mexico has reported 26 confirmed human cases of infection including seven deaths." Worldwide, nine countries had officially reported 148 cases of the swine influenza A/H1N1 infection, 91 of them in the United States.
Israel Expected to Raise Alert to Level Five
Israel is expected to follow the WHO’s directives Thursday by raising its health alert to level five, one level lower than a national pandemic. However, the Israeli Health Ministry has not recommended that travelers returning from Mexico be examined for possible infection with the swine flu. “A traveler only needs to seek medical attention if he feels ill and contracts a high fever,” Dr. Leor said. “There is no need to panic."
The swine flu has spread to 11 countries around the world, including at least three European Union nations. Most recently, cases of swine flu were discovered in Switzerland and Peru.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was set to meet with Health Ministry officials Thursday to discuss preparations for managing any outbreak of the virus in Israel.
Netanyahu met with Health and Defense Ministry officials late Tuesday afternoon, on the eve of Independence Day, to consider the possibility of transferring the responsibility for logistical management of any outbreaks from the Health Ministry to the defense establishment, which has jurisdiction to close schools should a pandemic affect the Jewish State. It was decided at the meeting to leave matters in the hands of the Health Ministry and review the situation later in the week.
At the meeting, the Prime Minister told Deputy Minister Litzman to increase the supplies of the Tamiflu anti-viral medication to an amount sufficient to treat 30 percent of the population. Litzman told Voice of Israel government radio that the Finance Ministry, and not the Health Ministry, would need to pay for the medications.