H1N1 VIRUS A REALITY WE HAVE TO CONTEND WITH

Please let us just check if we have all the facts right.
Did you know?
• WHO has declared H1N1 a pandemic due to its quick spread
• A quarter of a million infection cases have been laboratory confirmed worldwide.
• According to WHO, H1N1 has killed 2837 people world over
• The drug used by most countries to treat H1N1 is Anti-flu medicine oseltamivir
• If infection is reported on time the chances of recovery is almost one
H1N1 virus is a pretty new disease in the face of the earth, and since the fast case of the disease was reported, it has since spread like a raging inferno in a dry land. To tame the spread of the airborne catastrophe many a nation reacted by heightening their security alerts at all entry points especially to people from regions that were considered black sports for the disease. My country was not left behind in this reflex response, but when the ministry of health reaffirmed to the citizens that enough measures had been put in place to ensure water tight sealing against the entry of the disease in the country, I comfortably sunk in my sit with consolation that at least S1H1 was a problem for another day. The next news I had was that the fast diagnosis of the disease in Kenya had just been made in my town, precisely one kilometer from my house. Actually if you were coming to my home town you would have to connect on another plane from the capital city. The easy spread and the asymptomatic first infection stages of the disease has put to tusk even the most developed economies of the world. The disease has already been reported in close to 168 countries and the spread is yet to be impeded. Even the United States is caught with its hands tied behind as millions of children resume studies from the spring vacation which could just be a dry bush for the threatening inferno.
Why has the disease coursed a lot of hype yet it is not as deadly as some of the lesser know infections? H1N1 virus spreads by air and a simple careless sneeze is enough to send everyone within the vicinity to the quarantine zone. With the new studies by researchers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggesting that the virus may damage the brain and course long term infections like Alzheimer and Parkinson’s disease after recovery, the world is yet to hit the height of fear in so far as this new infection is concerned. As many countries around the world remain trapped in the amnesia that H1N1 is a disease for their neighbors and continue to slap travel ban on perceived infection prone countries, maybe it is high time we owned up to the reality that no one is immune to this infection irrespective of their geographical location, and reverted to the prevention mode. Even the Nobel peace laureate and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias was puzzled after contracting the disease and remarked, ‘The pandemic makes no distinctions, I am one more case in this country and I am being submitted for the recommendations that the health authorities have established for the whole country’ At best you and I can do the world a favor by watching our hygiene and seeking prompt medication in case of any suspicious flu, cold or fever