Day 23 - H1N1

The H1N1 pandemic has everybody in its grip. Masks have become the order of the day and people are postponing visits to their favourite movies or tourist locations. If someone sneezes or coughs near you, you tend to move away from the person. If a family member as much as sniffles, you tend to ensure that there is enough medication for cold and you fix an appointment with the doctor immediately. If you doctor tells you that its a regular cold, you want to have a second opinion.

We are all scared! Is the panic valid? Should we closet ourselves in a room and decide not to come out till this blows over? Should we take inordinate precautions to ensure that we do not get a cold?

Why are we so scared by this simple flu?

I guess the answer lies in the nature of this illness. When a potential killer disease disguises itself into the most common ailment - one that happens to all of us multiple times a year - then we don't know how to react. How can we - as laymen - distinguish between the dreaded H1N1 and the simple cold / cough? At the same time the common flu is highly contagious by nature. Our kids get the common flu through other kids in school. How do you protect against that?

And therein lies the danger of H1N1. It disguises itself into a common flu, its highly contagious and its difficult to distinguish. A common flu variant that lasts for a longer time might have been OK. A common flu that needs higher dosage of medication might have been OK. But a common flu that kills is a one to fear.

Today we are running scared of a simple sniffle or a small cough. Where will this lead us? Will we become a world of masks? Will we be afraid of the simple cold? How long will we have to live in this fear? I think none of us have answers to that.

Will this fear improve our hygiene manners? Will the whole world start washing their hands and sneezing into their tissues? Will this effect a change like AIDS with disposable needles and barbers changing razors for every shave? Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.

I just hope that H1N1 does not mutate into something more dangerous.