H1N1: School Closure A Last Option...

This is from today's NST... Anyway, picture this.

Sick people waiting for up to 7 hours before being seen by the hospital assistant (HA) or doctors. The docs, nurses, hospital staff, hospital cleaners are too swamped right now... The same patient, after being seen, goes back with the medication. Next day, the patient goes back because the fever is still high. This time, he waits another 6 hours to be admitted... because the queue is long and there seems a shortage of beds. Rooms meant for 4 patients now are filled up by 8. And there are lots of hearsays going around.

And where do most of the infections take place now? One of the places is the school. We're seeing a domino effect.... one student after another, one class after another... and it's compounded by the exam season. The UPSR and PMR trial exams... soon to be followed by the SPM and STPM..... so students are compelled to go to schools, therefore compounding the problem. The virus is having a field day in a field made available by institutionalization.

I've been seeing so many of my students falling sick these past 2 weeks. It does seem so out of control and worrying. They have brought the virus home. I supposed in the next 2 weeks we're going to hear more cases involving the family members...... and this is only from my perspective.... from a small school in the suburbs of Alor Setar. In Labuan, the Health Director says 90% of those infected were students. Well, this is now... in a week or so, it'll be a different group.

A lot of talk about telling people not to capitalize on the current epidemic.. masks going at super-inflated prices, digital thermometers now gone up another notch too, old stocks of anti-virals given an extension of shelf-life... human nature is such that they will capitalize.. no point telling them not to.

So, school closure a last option... there should have been a closure, perhaps at the beginning. Maybe not nation-wide but state by state... school by school just did not do much good. But it is always easier to reflect on hindsight. We always lack the courage to take the drastic measure upfront because of so many reasons. Decisive leadership is something that is very lacking now. The Minister says schools can only be closed if too many students or teachers get the infection... wonder whether the Minister realize also that there are many teachers who have underlying health problems.. and also those who are beyond their first trimester of pregnancy.

Anyway, check this blog if you want to know what is happening around the schools in the country where H1N1 is concerned. It probably contains more info than your mainstream media. By the way you may want to also check this out; from BERNAMA. You'd wonder where our news editors put their brains. Propaganda spin doctors work too when there is pandemic!

Right now, it feels like the virus is on a rampage. True, 98% of the people do recover without the need of hospitalization.... but you wonder how much under-reporting takes place, because this is Bolehland we're talking about. Report too many deaths and the economy might be affected. It all boils down to $$$. Everything can be compromised... just take a read of the PKFZ fiasco.... Ministers, leader of the backbenchers club, MPs... from the left hand to the right hand... and they make it sound so okay. So, take a moment to wonder, would you trust them to do the right things?

My two sen of ramblings... At lunch time today, announcement of another 7 fatalities... that makes it 51 now. BTW, they say it takes 3 weeks for herd immunity to start and 3 to 6 months for this flu to peak. Our Culture Minister also says not to have an alarmist approach to this whole flu thing. Then I'd like him to make visits to the hospitals to see the situation.