swine flu

I realize 100+ people have died of swine flu. I'm not trying to be insensitive. But before we rush off panicking about a new TV-movie-style pandemic (like *gasp* SARS or *the horror* avian flu), I want to bring up a couple points that aren't getting mentioned a whole lot in swine flu coverage.

First of all, factory farms' role in this. The Mexican government is investigating CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) because these are breeding grounds for disease--as many animals as possible crammed into as little space as possible. To combat this, farmers load up these animals with antibiotics. Surprise, surprise, the common swine flu virus mutated to become resistant to such antibiotics. Not to mention the selective breeding that is ruining the natural variety of domesticated animals that traditionally provided a counter to such diseases; a greater genetic variety reduces the chances that diseases can wipe out entire populations.

Secondly, can we get a little perspective? Again, I'm not trying to be flippant about people dying, but 2.2 million children in developing nations under the age of 5 die from diarrhea every year. Each year, 350,000,000 - 500,000,000 million cases of malaria occur worldwide every year, with 1,000,000 deaths stemming from it. That's a whole hell of a lot more than the 100-something people who died from the bird flu "pandemic." When are we going to get up in arms about tropical disease?