Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Swine flu fear catching fast in weak world economy - Yahoo! Finance

What will the economic impact of swine flu be? While it is WAY too early to say, it will have a negative impact. If the World Bank's study can be trusted, the impact may be less than I would have anticipated.

Swine flu fear catching fast in weak world economy - Yahoo! Finance:
"A report by the World Bank, updated last year, estimated that a severe pandemic -- like the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918 that killed between 40 million and 100 million people -- would cause a nearly 5 percent drop in global economic activity, costing the world about $3.1 trillion.

'Even a mild pandemic has significant consequences for global economic output,' a pair of Australian researchers wrote in a 2006 report cited by the World Bank."
That said, it is way too early to know and there are many variables we just do not know yet (how virulent will it be, how much it will spread, how fast it will spread).

1 comment:

Sujan Patricia said...

H1N1 (referred to as “swine flu” early on) is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. Symptoms of swine flu are similar to those caused by other influenza viruses. Health authorities across the globe are taking steps to try to stem the spread of swine flu after outbreaks in Mexico and the United States. The World Health Organization has called it a "public health emergency of international concern."