Health Organizations Cave to Pork Producers

A national and an international health organization have cowered to pressure from pork producers and will cease using the term "swine flu."

According to the agribusiness site Meatingplace.com, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization will stop using the phrase "swine flu." (You'll need to register to gain access to the site.)

The U.S. agencies will use "2009 H1N1 flu" and the WHO will use "influenza A (H1N1)" instead, according to a memo distributed by the North American Meat Processors Association.

This move comes just days after a WHO official said there was no need to rename the disease.

"This episode started basically with that name, and the virus that is identified is a swine influenza virus," [the WHO's Keiji] Fukuda said on a conference call today. "We don't have any plans to try to introduce any new names for this disease."

Today, though, without any explanation the WHO reversed its decision. Its Web site simply says the following:

30 April 2009 -- From today, WHO will refer to the new influenza virus as influenza A(H1N1).

For the past several days, Big Agribusiness has been trying to persuade the media and agencies worldwide to rename the disease, as the term "swine flu" has been hurting pork producers' stocks.

This decision, of course, begs the question ... Who is in charge?

(Photo credit: Eduardo Verdugo/AP)