Man!!!
Are they serious?
Scores of people are dying, and these guys are arguing that the name of the virus offends the sensibilities of Muslims and Jews?
I guess these are the guys that won't allow their kids to read "Winnie The Pooh" because of the "piglet".
Well, guess what people?
Pigs DO exist!
LOL! 
JERUSALEM – The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.
Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and "we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel.
Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.
Scientists are unsure where the new swine flu virus originally emerged, though it was identifed first in the United States. They say there is nothing about the virus that makes it "Mexican" and worry such a label would be stigmatizing.
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 in Mexico where more than 100 people have been killed by the disease so far.
Laboratories in the U.S. and Canada have confirmed that of the samples tested so far, the swine flu virus in Mexico and U.S. appear to be the same.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090427/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_odd_israel_kosher_...
lol... these people must be ... seriously bored... Don't they have anythuing else to do?
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"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the main difference between a dog and man."
Mark Twain
Q: What is swine flu?
A: Influenza is a virus that infects people, birds, pigs and other animals such as ferrets. Swine flu, or swine influenza, is a form of the virus that normally infects pigs. There are many forms of flu, and the different varieties have the ability to exchange genes with one another. The form of flu that originated in Mexico is a genetic mixture of viruses that have been seen in pigs, birds and people. It’s being called a swine flu because the overall structure of the virus is of the type that affects pigs, said Keiji Fukuda, a WHO official.
Q: How do people catch swine flu?
A: Studies are still ongoing on how this particular swine flu is transmitted. Flu is generally transmitted through the respiratory tract. Droplets of infected body fluids can carry flu when people cough or sneeze. Studies indicate that masks called N95 respirators that, when properly used, filter germs from the breath and hamper the spread of flu. Neither contact with pigs nor eating pork has been linked to the spread of the flu, Fukuda said today. Still, health researchers are working to establish that the virus is spreading from person-to-person.
Source: Bloomberg
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"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the main difference between a dog and man."
Mark Twain
Sorry fujimoto but isn't Bloomberg a financial channel? So only if I want financial advice I will go to it. For now I am sticking to the Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization reports.
wait a second, wait a second! I understand why it would be offensive for the Mexicans for it to be called "Mexican flu" because it uses their name, but why would "swine flu" be offensive to the Jews and Muslims. is it using their name?
looool it's amazing how some people would argue over such things in the 21st century,, but it's reality
this is ridiculous. i hope the jews don't start protests and killings like muslims did over the danish Cartoons some year ago