Swine Flu hits South Africa

Today the news reported that we had our first confirmed case of the dreaded Swine Flu. A 12 year old boy who had returned from a trip to America was placed in quarantine after complaining of feeling ill and it was discovered that he had the virus. He has since been released in the care of his family to recover.

These diseases are frightening things these days. With our increasing global accessibility, we are becoming more and more vulnerable to possible mass deaths from outbreaks. Although it probably wouldn't be as severe as Europe's various plagues, who knows how quickly these diseases could spread?

Some of them - particularly the Ebola virus are nasty little critters. The idea of bleeding out from every area of my body and dying in convulsions does not thrill me, however it seems that I am more likely to die of flu these days than some exotic disease!