Swine Flu, H1N1, Influenza A

Recently, there has been a outbreak on the swine flu which originated from Mexico. Swine flu, H1N1 or Influenza A whatever you decide to call it, would still be regcognized as a lethal airborne infection, without symptoms very easily mistaken as the symptoms of the common flu, and has spread to over 43 countries all over the world, infected 12022 people and caused 86 deaths. This reminds us of the SARS incident a few years back or even the infamous spread of plague. However, as such infections threaten the existence of humanity again and again, are countries in the world putting in enough effort and using a suitable strategy in tackling the issue?

The uniqueness of this specific incident is that it was found to be able to spread through both birds as well as pigs. Humans have always been known to the spread of bird flu and have put up many cautions and prevention such as checking the hygiene of food related with birds. This has created wuite a fuss to the economy as trades such as restaurants or food markets are greatly affected as the people are disillusioned by the incident, thus, they are more fearful of buying any product which are "bird-based". This creates a form of "protectionism" among the people and thus, is not beneficial for the country. Hence, as this event does not involve birds but also pigs, it amplifies the effect of "protectionism".

On top of that, in recent years, the world has faced the global economic crisis due to the break down of American currency. This has caused much problems to the economy of many countries as the flow of cash is getting slower and slower, which is not favorable for the economic growth of the country. Thus to solve this problem, many government has encouraged the people to not be fearful of risking their money and not to support protectionism. However, with the occurrence of Influenza A, this has caused many international trades and businesses to slow down and many international relationships would need to be put to a stop for the moment to prevent further spread of this lethal virus, especially when this virus is able to mutate more as it spreads. This puts the countries in a difficult position as they are not able to cater to the two issue of global economic crisis and prevention of spread of the swine flu at the same time as it would contradict each other. This is a very big issue for countries with a very open economy such as Hong Kong and Singapore because these countries' economy are greatly dependent on foreign relations. This is why the chances of these country having swine flu cases are high as seen by the 3 cases of infected in Hong Kong and one in Singapore just this morning. It puts the government of these countries at a very difficult position as they would need ensure security of its citizens at the expense of the economic growth of the countries which might lead to unemployment.

However, due to the advance technology of today, any living or non-living being travelling in and out of countries can be screened and checked to ensure that they do not carry any sign of the swine flu and would not be a potential threat to the community. However, technologies can provide security and safety for a country but they do not do miracles. Especially when the H1N1 virus is an airborne virus, it would be extremely hard to detect even with todays technology, thus, resulting of risk of the virus spreading into the country.

All in all, I feel that countries imposing quarantine order, having temperature checks in school and reducing public events and gatherings is already an adequate action done by the government although it may not be effective enough. To me, it is forgivable that some countries may not be able to completely protect its citizens from the flu as they themselves have many restrains and limitations such as economic problems and the rate at which this virus is spreading.