Thursday, August 31, 2006

Birds May Travel, but Will You?

The bird flu has been discussed in the news for several months now. Both the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta say that traveling to countries that are known to be infected with the bird flu disease in both humans and poultry, will not be restricted at this point in time.
It has been said that the Avian Flu will arrive in North America sometime this year, 2006. This will result in a pandemic where scientists have mentioned an estimated 30% of the population will become infected and very ill. As you know, health care in America is already a mess and for all we know it will be up to us to help ourselves when this flu strikes.
When it comes to travel, for business or pleasure, people have the choice to fly and/or take a cruise, but because of this new bird flu scare, will people all over the world stop traveling? Think about the Caribbean Islands, villagers thrive off of tourism. If they do choose to stop traveling due to the fear of becoming infected by this flu, will economies deplete, sending airlines and cruise lines out of business? How about Disney World, the main tourist attraction in America, will it run out of business?

1 comment:

Geoff Enz said...

If the bird flu does indeed infect American is believe that it will hurt the travel industry a great deal. People will not travel to places that are infected with the flu and therefore the local economy will be affected. Just look at the economy of the areas affected by hurricane Katrina and everyone can clearly see the devastation not only physically but mentally on the region. There will be many hidden costs for the cities if the flu infects there town. These costs are hard to predict and can cause more damage than the epidemic itself.