Impacts of Swine Flu
Swine flu (H1N1) was a very significant pandemic for all countries and people around the world. It had mainly negative impacts but there were a few positives and lessons that we learned from it. These pros and cons may have been short or long-term effects on communities or individuals.
The spread of swine flu has prompted health organisations to promote good hygiene and become healthier and fit to help prevent or fight the virus. The pandemic has made people start to take care of themselves because they realise that they could get a disease at any time. This had a positive impact because people started to do these things and they may have become a habit so they continue to do it. Another positive was that once you get the vaccine for swine flu you will never get it again. An advantage of a disease like this is that people will become more aware in the future. The vaccine that was created for swine flu could also be used to treat other pandemics in the future.
A negative short-term impact is the symptoms of swine flu, which include fever, coughing, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. These symptoms would have led to people staying away from work and not bringing in an income for they families. People being absent from work led to businesses losing money. When schools closed down students would have missed out on their education. In Japan 200 schools were forced to close as soon as swine flu was detected to help stop it from spreading.
Swine flu did not have many positives on any countries or regions. The only company that may have profited during the pandemic was hygiene and sanitary companies that manufacture products such as soaps, hand sanitizers and maybe detergents. In some overpopulated cities and countries a reduce in population may have been seen as a positive impact of swine flu. In the future countries will now know how to react to pandemics and governments will keep emergency funds for situations like these. When swine flu broke out, Barack Obama used $1.5 billion of emergency money to try and stop the swine flu spread and find a vaccine.
There were many negative impacts on countries, especially Mexico, where swine flu originated. Mexico and USA’s tourist industry would have run at a loss because the decrease in tourists. A survey showed that 61% of people scheduled to travel to Mexico cancelled their trips because of swine flu. 22 hotels in Mexico were forced to close down because of the lack of tourists. In 2007 tourism brought $13 billion into Mexico. Mexico is also the largest exporter of oil, refrigerators and plasma TVs, and these create the largest amount of income for Mexico. If trade was suspended Mexico would lose a lot of money. Swine flu has also had a negative effect on Mexico’s $15 billion pork industry. Mexico had a very large loss on the pork industry but USA’s pork industry lost $5 billion and pig farmers lost 60% of their equity (value).
There were many negative impacts on countries, especially Mexico, where swine flu originated. Mexico and USA’s tourist industry would have run at a loss because the decrease in tourists. A survey showed that 61% of people scheduled to travel to Mexico cancelled their trips because of swine flu. 22 hotels in Mexico were forced to close down because of the lack of tourists. In 2007 tourism brought $13 billion into Mexico. Mexico is also the largest exporter of oil, refrigerators and plasma TVs, and these create the largest amount of income for Mexico. If trade was suspended Mexico would lose a lot of money. Swine flu has also had a negative effect on Mexico’s $15 billion pork industry. Mexico had a very large loss on the pork industry but USA’s pork industry lost $5 billion and pig farmers lost 60% of their equity (value).