An outbreak of swine flu dampened tentative hopes for the global economy, sending markets lower on Monday and analysts fear a possible deadly disease could force countries further into recession.The virus, a new strain of swine flu, has killed 103 people in Mexico and spread to the United States. The World Health Organization said the outbreak was a “public health emergency of international concern” that could become a deadly disease or global outbreak of serious disease.

The World Bank estimated in 2008 that a flu pandemic could cost $3 trillion and result in a nearly 5 percent drop in world gross domestic product, damaging prospects of recovery in a world economy deep in financial crisis. The SARS outbreak, which disrupted travel, trade and the workplace in 2003, cost the Asia Pacific region an estimated $40 billion. It lasted six months and killed 775 of the 8,000 people it infected in 25 countries.

European shares opened lower, with the FTSEurofirst 300 index down 1.11 percent at 0830 GMT. Airline stocks were hit by fears the outbreak would hurt travel but drugmakers were higher on vaccine hopes against the virus. Japan’s Nikkei average closed up just 0.2 percent on Monday, giving up earlier gains as the yen rose sharply and other Asian stocks fell on concerns over the flu outbreak

Same kind of reaction was observed during bird flu when all world market went down by 8-10% , where world economy was suffered from a loss of around 5 trillion $