Unbelievable.
The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed “Mexican” influenza indeference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israelihealth official Monday.
Deputy Health MinisterYakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religionsand “we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu,” he told a newsconference at a hospital in central Israel.
Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.
Scientistsare unsure where the new swine flu virus originally emerged, though itwas identifed first in the United States. They say there is nothingabout the virus that makes it “Mexican” and worry such a label would bestigmatizing.
Two Israelis who recently visited Mexico have been hospitalized with symptoms of the flu. Health authorities have not yet confirmed whether they actually have the virus.
The current strain of swine flu is thought to have originated inMexico where more than 100 people have been killed by the disease sofar.
Laboratories in the U.S. and Canada haveconfirmed that of the samples tested so far, the swine flu virus inMexico and U.S. appear to be the same.