As swine flu runs rampant in the Southern Hemisphere winter, world health experts are concerned that some hard-hit countries have been reluctant to take forceful measures to protect public health. Only yesterday did Argentina's new Health Minister, Juan Manzur, raise the country's official death toll to 44. He now estimates that as many as 320,000 people have been stricken with influenza, including about 100,000 with swine flu - a huge jump in what the Government acknowledged previously. Britain had refused to do widespread testing for swine flu, slowing the World Health Organisation's efforts to declare that the viral spread had become a pandemic. Britain's Health Minister Andy Burnham belatedly acknowledged Britain needed to revamp its response and could see up to 100,000 new swine flu cases a day by the end of August. The... [read full story]
