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Harry potter star Rupert Grint

The global pandemic Swine Flu which has been spreading worldwide for the last few months, has decided not to even spare the stars. Yep, its not confirmed that the one of the Stars of Harry Potter movies is sick with Swine Flu. Rupert Grint is 20 years old and plays as Ron Weasley in Harry Potter.

Looks like Rupert Grint caught the flu while he was filming for the latest movie in the Harry Potter series. Looks like swine flu is also spreading in the Wizard World.  Hope the news is covered by Daily Prophet. I guess this is the first case of a wizard who caught swine flu. OK, enough with all the Wizard stuff, lets get back to reality.

For now, it seems Rupert Grint is recovering well from swine flu. He is also expected to attend the Tuesday’s London premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

His rep said, “It has just been confirmed that Rupert Grint has taken a few days out of filming due to a mild bout of swine flu, He has now recovered and is looking forward to joining his fellow cast members at the junket and premieres this week and will then return to filming directly afterwards.” In a statement he released to the press.

He also added that Repert Grint’s doctors have determined that their patient is not contagious. Looks like they don’t want to scare the hell off other stars who attend the premiers. Well, I don’t think the no matter what the doctor says, other stars who attend the premiers will be a lot more concerned about getting infected. Some may even be open about it, but most will be scared to death inside.

It also looks like the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows crew were able to go ahead without Rupert Grint and have not lost any of the production days. Looks like they must have covered the part of the movie where Ron Weasley has an argument with Harry Potter under the influence of dark magic and leaves his friends to go back home.

After weeks of close observation  over the swine flu situation,the WHO has finally decided to declare the flu as Pandemic. World Health Organisation(WHO) has also alerted all the member nation on thursday, stating it as the global pandemic. This is the new flu virus to spread globally after the last flu seen before 41 years. The global countries that are affected are Mexico,USA,Europe, South Asia, Australia,South America and many more places.

With an Emergency meeting concluded with its officials, the WHO  has raised the alert phase from level 5 to level 6 which is the highest level to reach. WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan was expected to make a formal announcement soon.

“At this early stage, the pandemic can be characterised globally as being moderate in severity,” WHO said in the statement, urging nations not to close borders or restrict travel and trade.

The declaration of  pandemic by WHO ,will now confirm that this is the most crucial spreading flu across the globe and the need to prevent it with medical care arised. The drug developers are now working on it to produce more vaccination possible for swine flu. Besides this, WHO has now on talks with the countries urging them to prevent themselves in all possible ways from the infection of swine flu.

WHO also told countries it was in “close dialogue” with flu vaccine makers and it believed the firms would work “to ensure the largest possible supply of pandemic vaccine in the months to come.” The rate of increase in affected persons is climbing more per day and if the WHO and the drug makers didnt act fast than expected it will cause more damage through out the globe.

Reports are now suggesting that the swine flu which has already infected people in 30 countries can be as severe as the 1957 “Asian flu” pandemic that was responsible for the death of 2 Million people.

About 4 of 1000 people infected with the new H1N1 virus in Mexico by late April died. Now scientists are trying to determine if the swine flu will mutate and become more deadly as it spreads to the southern hemisphere and back. The virus is more contentious than the seasonal flu. A “Moderate” pandemic like the 1957 Asian flu could kill 14.2 million people and shave 2% from the global economic the first year itself. The swine flu being categorised as “Severe” can do much more.

“While substantial uncertainty remains, clinical severity appears less than that seen in 1918 but comparable with that seen in 1957,” the Science study authors wrote.

So how did the global pandemic flu actually form in the first place? Well, flu pandemics occur when is a strain of the disease to which few people have immunity evolves and began spreading. Pandemics usually after 2 to 3 times a century, scientists have said. A worldwide outbreak as severe as the 1918 Spanish flu might cause 180 million to 360 million deaths, according to a 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The last pandemic that hit this century was in 1968 and the health officials have been anticipating another since the H5N1 virus began spreading widely in birds in 2003.

As of now swine flu has been confirmed 4694 people, according to World Health Organization and the health agency of the United Nations. And 61 people how been killed, the majority being from Mexico where 56 people have been killed and three in the US. The rest are, one from Canada and one from Costa Rica. US tops the list in the most confirmed cases of swine flu which is 2618 cases in 44 states according to the centres for disease control and prevention.

Thailand and Cuba today have reported their country’s first confirmed case of swine flu. Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the former Cuban President Fedel Castro confirmed it today. These figures are not included in the world health organization’s latest tally.

A new study has said that each person infected with swine flu in Mexico in April gave at least 1.4 more people on average. While these figures are in the lower range of transmission for a pandemic, it is quicker than most seasonal flus.

As swine flu continues to spread in many countries across the world in the time of global recession, the swine flu can also be a major factor that melts the economy.

Reports are also confirming that swine flu is more prone to people with asthma and diabetes.