How do you prevent the further spread of a pandemic?

Answer 1

H1N1 can be prevented if you practise good personal hygiene. The virus can live for up to 48 hours. They live longer on non-porous surfaces like plastic, metal and wood and live shorter on porous surfaces like fabrics, skin and paper. Minimise the use of public things such as public phones etc. Maintain social distance and victims of H1N1 must stay at home and rest, avoid going to crowded places. Try not to practise the sharing of personal items like a toothbrush, food and drinks.

Answer 2

The 1918 Pandemic of the Spanish Flu has come and gone (in 1918).

If you mean how can we prevent another similar pandemic, like with the current A-H1N1/09 Virus (Swine Flu), then avoidance of the virus and good hygiene measures are our only current methods of prevention. Although we do have two antiviral medications that are effective in lessening the symptoms and helping to speed recovery by preventing the virus from reproducing.

There is a vaccine under current development that will provide immunization, but it is not expected to be tested and approved as safe and effective until sometime in the fall. The world health ministries are planning now for if and when they will implement vaccination programs. The World Health Organization (WHO) is providing guidance to them in planning for the use of the vaccine.

In the meantime, good hand washing technique and other measures can help significantly to lower your chances of contracting the flu. See the related questions below for more information on how to avoid contamination from the virus.

Answer 3

Break the chain of the transmission. If you get symptoms, or even if you just think you have been exposed but do not yet have symptoms, stay as isolated from others as you can so you can not spread it to others. As each individual takes this personal responsibility, eventually the spread can be controlled and then finally stopped. See the related questions below for more information on how to prevent the spread of the flu virus.

Answer 4

There was no vaccine for the flu then, so that was not available. There was little to no knowledge of viruses at the time, so it was unknown how it spread and therefore, unknown how to prevent it.

Today we know that viruses are submicroscopic inert particle organisms that can attach to and enter our cells when we come in contact with them from another infected person or with things they have touched and left the viruses on. Had they known, they could have used better preventive methods of hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes and maybe the deaths toll would not have been so high.

Answer 5

There are vaccines available for Swine Flu. Masks help. Wash hands frequently.

Answer 6

Best way to do so is by stopping the movement of the population across the globe. That is not possible. Second is by by quarantine. This should be easy, as the incubation period is short.