Swine Flu Chart from Economist.com

(click to enlarge)

THE World Health Organisation raised the threat level for swine flu on Thursday June 11th to pandemic status, the highest possible. It is the first influenza pandemic since 1968, when Hong Kong flu killed 1m people. Almost 28,000 cases of swine flu and 141 deaths have been confirmed in 74 countries since the A(H1N1) virus was first identified in Mexico in late March. In Australia alone, the number of people infected has jumped from around 500 to 1,200 in one week. However, in a new paper published in Nature on Thursday, researchers suggest that the strain had probably been in existence for months before it was isolated, highlighting the need for good surveillance.

Boarding Passes in Your Blackberry

As reported in Executive Travel Magazine this week:

Passengers traveling out of Salt Lake City on Delta, Northwest or Delta Connection can now use so-called paperless boarding passes, and Delta will expand the option this week to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport as well. And American Airlines last week expanded its paperless boarding pass option to three more airports: Las Vegas, Atlanta and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Various airlines have introduced paperless boarding pass technology at a number of airports, in cooperation with the Transportation Security Administration. Passengers who want to use this option will need a Web-enabled mobile device; when they check in online, they can select to download their boarding pass to the device.

The boarding pass will show up on the screen of the device as a bar code-type pattern, which will be scanned at the airport by a TSA agent when the passenger’s ID is checked. The electronic boarding pass is also scanned at the gate prior to boarding.

The Downturn and the Caregiver

As addressed in George Moschis's essential book Baby Boomers and Their Parents, the role of the caregiver is an increasing critical part in the American family. Members of the Silent Generation are living longer than previous generations, but often face critical care needs as they collect an array of maladies associated with advanced aging.

The challenge of the family caregiver was highlighted in an article in yesterday's New York Times. Here are the quick takeaways.

The economic crisis has spread its pain widely, but it has placed special stresses on the estimated 44 million Americans who provide care for an elderly or disabled relative or spouse, many of whom have already made themselves financially vulnerable trying to balance work and family.

In a recent survey of 1,005 caregivers, one in six said they had lost a job during the downturn, and 21 percent said they had to share housing with family members to save money. The survey was conducted by the National Alliance for Caregiving and Evercare, a division of the UnitedHealth Group, which provides long-term health care.

Caregivers spend an average of $5,500 a year as part of their responsibilities, not counting lost wages, according to a 2007 survey by the National Alliance for Caregiving.