H1N1 Influenza A

With the recent breakout of the H1N1 influenza, people all over the world have been flung into chaos. In this blog post, I will be sharing my opinion on how various countries have reacted to the H1N1 influenza. This influenza was originally named the “swine flu”, having been suspected to infect pigs alone. However, it was later found out that it could be transmitted through the air. 

The first country that was hit with the influenza was Mexico. Though it had seemed that the cases in Mexico were going out of hand, but Mexico was in fact the first country to get the influenza under control. However, critiques still continue to arrow Mexico, blaming them for the outbreak. Some countries have even gone to the extent of disallowing Mexicans from entering their countries. I personally feel that such measures are very unreasonable. Though the outbreak of the influenza may have been due to the lack of vigilance on the Mexicans’ side, ostracising them would simply be immoral.

 On the other hand, America, the supposedly “more developed country”, has been greatly hit by the influenza. What saddens me is how irresponsible the Americans seemed, with the greatest number of cases and death toll. With such advanced medical facilities, it would be expected that the influenza at least be contained. Furthermore, the American government did close to nothing to prevent the influenza from spreading to other countries. Statistics have shown that almost all the first cases in Asia came from America. 

Another ironic case study would be China, given its massive population; doctors all over the world have speculated that China would have the greatest number of cases. Despite such speculations, China seemed to have gotten the influenza under control, startling many professionals. However, many believe that it is due to its huge population that it is hard to keep track of confirmed influenza cases. Hence, people have accused China of reporting false figures, but I believe that they deserve a certain amount of credit as well. 

Bringing the question back to Singapore, I believe that Singapore has fared rather poorly, though the preventive measures taken by the Singaporean government is commendable, being one of the latest countries to be hit by the influenza. However, once the influenza hit us, it spread like wild fire, having over 100 cases each day, and yet Singaporeans are still behaving as though nothing is happening, treating the influenza as a joke. The government isn’t at any fault; in fact they have been doing almost everything that they can. The problem lies solely in the Singapore public, they should change their attitude towards the influenza and start treating it as a real threat before it is too late.