Throughout the last three months of clamoring to contain swine flu -- the virus which has spread throughout the world, reaching 168 countries -- doctors in the United States are taking notes of what went wrong.

Lack of communication, lack of resources and lack of planning all top the list of the reasons why the H1n1 virus has become such a prevalant worry in the global medical world.

Regulations, such as those that prevent publication of studies without proper evidence based medicine and scientific report, are also to blame for the massive spread of the flu virus. It's much more difficult to learn about the virus when the knowledge about it is kept under wraps.

Dr. William Schaffner,  chairman of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University, stated in the New York Times that "health professionals and the public should be receiving more information in a timelier way about what has been learned about the swine flu pandemic."

But how does the medical community go about dispelling information that first needs to be researched and studied? That dilemma, in the opinions of doctors worldwide, is the biggest factor in the spread of the swine flu virus. Most "experts say this outbreak has exposed several weaknesses in the world's ability to respond to the sudden emergence of a widespread illness."

To read the full article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/health/11docs.html?ref=health