# 3614
Although technically a monsoon is seasonal prevailing wind caused by the development of a thermal low over a land mass, it is best known for bringing heavy rainfall to an area over a period of months.
This year, it also appears to be driving the spread of the novel H1N1 virus in tropical and subtropical regions of India and Asia.
The good news is that the incidence of pandemic flu appears to be lessening in places like New Zealand, Australia, and parts of South America.
This from Reuters.
Pandemic flu spreading with Asian monsoon season - WHO
Tue Aug 11, 2009 5:56pm IST
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - H1N1 pandemic flu is spreading in India, Thailand and Vietnam with the onset of Asia's monsoon season, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.
But transmission of the new virus appears to have peaked in parts of the southern hemisphere including Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand, the United Nations agency said.
Some 177,457 cases of the virus commonly known as swine flu, including 1,462 deaths, have been officially reported worldwide as of Aug. 6, but the true number of infections is certainly much higher, it said.
"We are seeing the spread of the pandemic being reported in many of the tropic countries. And in Asia, particularly in India Thailand and Vietnam. Also we're getting into the monsoon season in those countries at this time," WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi told a news briefing in Geneva.
The regular influenza season has begun in the three countries, coinciding with the monsoon season, and both H1N1 and seasonal flu are being detected, she said.
Note: For those curious, The Rains Came was the title of a book published in 1937 by Louis Bromfield, which was set in India, and made into a move in 1939 starring Myrna Loy and Tyrone Power.
