With the death count from the H1N1 global flu pandemic now at over 700, some are considering ways to slow the spread of the virus, with some Muslim nations warning pregnant women not to attend the hajj, and some areas considering closing schools.
A paper published Tuesday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal argues that closing schools might be helpful to break the chain of transmission and to lessen the burden on health care systems.
But the paper, written by researchers at London's Imperial College, also noted there would considerable economic costs from such an approach, as parents would be forced to stay home to look after children.
A report in Le Parisien newspaper says France's Education Ministry is already preparing for such a possibility. It has prepared nearly 300 hours of educational programming for radio and television to allow those affected by school closures to follow their lessons, the report said.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that school closures might be an approach that some areas may want to consider, but suggested it would be better suited to countries that don't yet have widespread infection.
"As WHO has been saying, different countries would be facing the pandemic at different levels at different times," WHO spokeswoman Alphaluck Bhatiasevi told a news briefing.
"So it is really up to countries to consider what mitigation measures suit them in regard to the situation in individual countries."
Bhatiasevi noted that a network of experts is using mathematical modelling to project what kind of cost-effective mitigation measures countries can implement. The WHO is coordinating the group, composed of mathematicians, epidemiologists and virologists, she said.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Neil Rau says he thinks recommending such precautions would be premature.
"The way the fine print reads is that this is something to be considered depending on the course of this virus," he told 麻豆影视 Channel.
He noted that closing schools would mean that parents would have to either stay off work or send their children to caregivers or other places where they would likely spread the virus among themselves anyway.
Such measures would do nothing to stop the spread of the virus among adults, he added, and at best, could only slow the spread, not stop it altogether.
"I think these interventions to stop people interacting are incredibly impractical for a virus of this nature. The response has to be commensurate with the risk," he said, adding that in the southern hemisphere, where it is now winter, officials are not seeing any more disease than expected.
Still, in some southern hemisphere countries, efforts are being made to slow the virus spread. In New Zealand, the Roman Catholic Church has banned priests from placing Communion wafers on the tongues of worshippers. In Chile, authorities suspended a northern religious celebration, prompting protests from the faithful.
Authorities in Jordan and Egypt, meanwhile, are recommending that pregnant women and those with chronic diseases refrain from performing the hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia this fall.
Arab health ministers are also holding an emergency meeting Wednesday in Cairo to come up with a unified plan to confront the pandemic.
