A new flu virus strain which has evolved to infect swines, is believed to have caused 100 deaths or more already in Mexico. Scary right? Yes it is really really scary. In fact, it has spread already to the USA with 20 reported cases. Canada had joined the bandwagon and so with some countries in Europe.
Good thing, this virus hasn't arrived in Singapore. Sigh of relief that is.
When I came to the office, there was a travel advisory already in the company, stating that all travels to and from Mexico will have to be approved by some guys in the higher echelon. In fact it's actually a travel ban because video conferencing has to be used in lieu of the travel.
I've also watched on TV, that imported pork is banned. Some countries are banning tourist coming from the affected countries. My dear Philippines has not imposed any travel ban but health officials were in maximum alert. I don't know if I should be happy with it or not.
I'm still wondering, why at this economic crisis, this flu came out. Maybe some underground organization is doing this and all they wanted is create more fear - a form of terrorism? Or an insane, bile scientist is doing this all just for fun. Or some pharmaceutical company doing research and made a big mistake of spreading the virus from its highly secured lab. Some thought provoking questions I have but I greatly hope we'll get this over with I mean I'm planning to travel to another country and it will be postponed or something because of this new strain of the flu virus.
I think the next animals in line would be dogs, so it's going to be called dog flu or canine flu - God forbids.
4 comments:
Hi there, greetings!! This is Justin Tan, Librarian from National Library Board Singapore. I chanced upon your blog entry on the current swine flu virus. I speak the same thoughts as yours too my friend. NLB also has an entry on this at its ASK blog at http://blogs.nlb.gov.sg/ask/adults/1020, perhaps you may like to take a look as well for more information and resources on this virus... And yes, the last thing we need is another strain variation of the virus into dogs or cats...
Thanks for the visit and sharing your thought and links.
Hope more awareness be made by the world's government and more preventive measures be taken and be be known to the public.
Hmm... I think we can't really control viral infections and mutations. What we can do is to be mentally and logistically prepared if the next one hits. On a positive note, it's clear the world's governments have learned from the SARS incident. The measures were swift and transparent. I feel that's one reason why the H1N1 crisis hasn't escalated. Still, we're not 100% out of the woods yet. Don't think we ever will, but that's just a fact of life.
Yeah we should be - combined efforts of the government and the citizenry.
Thanks for your valuable opinion, Ivan :D
Post a Comment