Are we prepared to tackle the worst of swine flu?
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Swine flu scare has caught up with the city residents. Many schools have been closed for fear that the students might get infected. But what about the hundreds of thousands on the streets? Some people have taken to wearing face masks but then they touch doors with their bare hands which can in theory infect them if a person with swine flu virus has also touched the door. Handshakes and hugging is another way by which a person can get infected.
They tell us that there are enough medicines in store to tackle swine flu if it came to that but this I find quite unbelievable. Tackle a pandemic? The picture in the city's hospitals and clinics tell a different story. Everyday most papers describe how sick people (suspected to be with swine flu) have been shuttling from one hospital to another. People have complained that doctors don't attend and instead they are told that they have to go to another place. People have been turned away from Apollo, Dhaka Medical College and Suhrawardy, to mention a few. Many turned up at the ICCDDR, but here too they were forced to wait hours before a doctor could see the patient.
There seems to be a kind of panic gathering momentum. One death has already been reported officially. Some say that the worse is still to come. They say the virus thrives in colder climate, a condition that is just around the corner for most in the western hemisphere. Here too we start winter in November. Are we prepared to tackle the worst?
Wahidul Alam
Malibagh, Dhaka
They tell us that there are enough medicines in store to tackle swine flu if it came to that but this I find quite unbelievable. Tackle a pandemic? The picture in the city's hospitals and clinics tell a different story. Everyday most papers describe how sick people (suspected to be with swine flu) have been shuttling from one hospital to another. People have complained that doctors don't attend and instead they are told that they have to go to another place. People have been turned away from Apollo, Dhaka Medical College and Suhrawardy, to mention a few. Many turned up at the ICCDDR, but here too they were forced to wait hours before a doctor could see the patient.
There seems to be a kind of panic gathering momentum. One death has already been reported officially. Some say that the worse is still to come. They say the virus thrives in colder climate, a condition that is just around the corner for most in the western hemisphere. Here too we start winter in November. Are we prepared to tackle the worst?
Wahidul Alam
Malibagh, Dhaka