H1N1 scare and strategic mistakes by Government

In recent times, you might have encountered people wearing weird masks, boards with messages from government on swine flue and group of people debating and giving advises on swine flu. If you happen to open TV and come across some news channel, they all are full of reports on new swine flu cases and at times, a doctor sitting and discussing prevention, causes and symptoms of swine flu. One of the news channel has also started a count of swine flu cases and death toll.

Swine flu, now technically termed as H1N1, is strain of influenza virus and is a transmittable disease. H1N1 cases were first reported in Mexico.

True! It is a transmittable disease with no antibiotic developed till now, likely to make by the end of this year, Tamiflu is only one antiviral drug and can make the illness milder but still a lot of hype has been made of it. People are so scared that schools have been closed in some parts of country.

It is not such a dangerous virus. There have been cases where patient had been affected by H1N1, without knowing themselves, but recovered by taking some paracetamol. Death rate of H1N1 cases are only 0.4% of those infected with virus. Deaths are majorly because of late response of patient or inadequate treatment by hospitals.

Ignorance and no clear guidelines by government are major reasons for this scare. People have many misconceptions like when to take Tamiflu, mistaking every simple flu case to H1N1 without even waiting for laboratory results. Actual symptoms of H1N1 include: throat infection, continuous fever, cold and sometimes body ache. If one is suffering from two or more such symptoms, he may have been infected by H1N1 virus.

I think major mistakes were strategic, on part of government and people, for such a scare and panic. They did not start any Programme for creating awareness. Second, Tamiflu were given only after laboratory results are positive. There were clear guidelines by WHO to straight away give Tamiflu to people showing symptoms. Usually Tamiflu is effective in initial phase, less than 72 hours, and laboratory results take around 3 days. That was one of the major reasons for initial deaths. Finally government has ordered direct distribution of Tamiflu to patients with symptoms.

I think in such cases, government should start working in planned and organized way. Government should come up with official articles on prevention, symptoms and other details in all national dailies. Government can come up with some code of reporting for news channels and other media. Media should not be allowed to report anything, as they always create hype of even small issues. Government can start some sort of crash course on H1N1 in schools, colleges and for gram panchayat. Kids and adolescents can better teach, and can take, their families in confidence. Panchs should be given primary training by PHCs (primary health centres) and panchs then should organize meetings to create awareness among villagers, as these people don’t read newspapers. Creating awareness by all possible means is very much essential and should be priority of government.

More details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_influenza
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic

Comments

  1. AnimeshAugust 21, 2009 at 1:42 AM

    Good post.

    Also, I wish people paid such attention to diseases with higher death rates - like TB, or AIDS [or car crashes, for that matter].

    keep writing!
    -A

    ReplyDelete
  2. DevenderAugust 21, 2009 at 6:23 AM

    Thanks bhaiya, actually I have started writing with a motto to enhance my writing skills.

    True, people really don't pay much attention these diseases. People never know that they have been suffering from disease like cancer, until it is very late. Have they been aware about symptoms and preventions, many lives would have been saved.

    ReplyDelete

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