Not just your common flu

What started out as a problem that was considered only "foreign" a few weeks ago has now progressed to become quite local; so local in fact that over a thousand people have been affected by it all at the same time. If you have been following the news, you should already have guessed what I'm talking about by now. It's about Influenza A, or more popularly known as the swine flu caused by the H1NI virus.

I guess it was only a matter of time before a resident of this country contracted the disease, and so start a local transmission of the disease. Even a country like Australia which, if I remember correctly, was spared the avian flu epidemic a few years back, and is quite isolated from the rest of the world due to its geographic location, is not spared this time. In fact, Victoria, one of it's biggest and most populous states, has earned the distinction of becoming the H1N1 centre of the world due to the rapid transmission of the disease there.

And now with a whole school closing with several others to be possibly closed, I wonder how far this virulent disease will spread in this country before effective containment is achieved. I'm sure it's not going to be easy. I was just chatting with my colleagues today, and one of them talked about her experience of going to one of the health clinics here. There was a large white tent at the clinic which was set up for operations dealing specifically with Influenza A. What a medical staff told my colleague was if they detected that you had the symptoms then you would instantly be held there and be whisked away to the quarantine centre here. You cannot go anywhere else. All you had were the clothes on your back. You didn't go anywhere till you had been cleared of the disease.

Now, that is bothersome. So, it's understandable when some people do not wish to report if they had come into contact with suspected cases recently. I'm not saying it's right and that it should be done that way; I'm just saying that I understand why some people do it, or in this case, don't do it. But, as far as Sabah is concerned, people are still generally undisturbed by the issue. The popular eating places are still pretty much crowded, and so too are the shopping malls on weekends. I just hope this is not a show of apathy on the part of the people here.

Be safe.