Swine Flu: The Threat Level In Oman
We all heard of the newly discovered Swine Flu. I heard of it but never paid much attention to it. For some reason, I always felt that this would never catch up in Oman. I just might be wrong.
I got an SMS yesterday evening from the Ministry of Health (MOH) saying that the Sultanate is currently clear from the H1N1 influenza. And that MOH is following on the progress of this disease globally and are taking all of the precautions (written in Arabic).
I didn't know what H1N1 was and I was almost freaking out about this SMS. Of course, the first thing that came in mind was the swine flu. I later found out that I was right. But the SMS made me even more aware about this disease and put me in a bit of a panic. I mean, why would the MOH send us an SMS telling us that we are free of the H1N1 virus? Are they trying to hide something? Or has there been many who called them up to ask them about it that they decided to to simply mass SMS everyone? Or just for the sake of letting people know that they are aware of this problem?
I would love to get into detail on what the H1N1 virus actually is and how it has evolved over time and all but I won't (yes, that was, indeed, sarcasm). What I am going to do though is evaluate the threat level that the Sultanate is in.
First of all, you got to know how Swine Flu is transmitted. It works exactly like any other Flu. Through coughs, sneezes and all that. This is all a very bad thing because it makes it extremely easy to spread out very fast.
Now, to the story that will get you concerned. The National - an Emarati local news paper - has published a news piece yesterday about a 23-year-old Indian university student who was tested positive for swine flu on the 12th of May at the Hyderabad International Airport after traveling from New York to Dubai and then from Dubai to Hyderabad.
He is currently in isolation and receiving treatment at the Government General and Chest Hospital in Erragadda.Yes, that's nice and all but what about the people that he might have infected at the Dubai airport? What about the people who were with him in the flight who remained in Dubai? It's not a hard possibility. Actually, it's highly likely that the disease has spread in the UAE.
The thing with Dubai catching this disease is that it won't be long before it starts to catch up in the Sultanate. With our easily accessible borders, I doubt anyone is being checked there. And if they are, I doubt the locals are going to be checked.
So far, all we have is that SMS from the MOH telling us that everything is alright. And a couple of press releases telling us that they have everything under control. But out of all that we have learned today, are we really at ease with what they've told us?
Be cautious and treat any flu symptoms that you might have immediately.
10 comments:
Nice news piece, i got the sms twice yestrday and today it scared me too!
But seriously, why the worry? If you look at the official World Health Organization's charts over here[1] you'll see that out of the 9830 cases, only 79 died that's barely 0.8%, it's just another disease.
Did you know that 33,000+ people die from normal flu every year?
[1] http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_05_19/en/index.html
Anonymous,
Thank you :)
ljuwaidah,
You have a good point there but you gotta know the difference between swine flu and any other disease.
Swine flu is a new virus and our system is not immune to it and there for, it could be lethal. And the reason why we are extra cautious of this virus is because of the speed at which it spreads. It's not hard for any of us to become part of that 0.8% statistic. And besides, the reason why there has been only 79 deaths so far is because of the effort that all of the countries are putting in to prevent any more deaths. If we just stood there and did nothing, it would have been a different story.
I don't know your source on the 33,000 deaths but I can bet that most of that number is from third world countries. Unlike swine flu, we have vaccines for normal flu.
Actually, that 33,000+ is in the US only.
According to this[1] article, 250,000 to 500,000 deaths occur every year because of flu (go to the Seasonal epidemics section).
[1] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/
We had a very long meeting today discussing the same!! Since I am working for an international company, such pandemics are taken seriously and all staff are keep in alert!
Ljuwaidah, it IS something to be taken care of. As Ma'wali said, the problem is not the # of deaths from this thing, it is the rate at which it kills. A person suffering from normal 'flu would die because of onset of complications triggered by 'flu. But the thing with these animal viruses is that they are already panzootics (animal pandemic: spread in 80% of the animal population). If this virus finds a mutative way to infect humans, then we're done for.
In its current forms, the animal virii do enter us, but they die without harming, coz they are unable to face our defensive mechs. The Human 'flu strain has learnt to face human defensive mechs but its spread is minimal, not more than 10% of the human pop. at a single time.
Combine the two... Kaboom!
And, as per tradition!! More reading
Ergh, my bad, proper link for more reading
-FK
FK, I couldn't have put it in better words.
You would have been super great if it weren't for your spamming :p
farkknight: That's what I said: In it's current form it's week and doesn't kill many people.. I'm not saying we shouldn't take precautions to prevent its spread, I'm just saying that at the moment you don't need to worry if you have it 'cause the probability that is as low as 0.8%
Even the WHO doesn't say you should panic, run to the hospital, be put under intensive care or be isolated.. it just says that you should stay away from people, have some rest, etc...
All that is for now!
Wow it’s nice posting, I like it.Adding more information it will be better....
Bathmate
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