This is a fear that has gripped the world all of a sudden. Though it is still not an epidemic or a pandemic, world leaders are still looking at it eerily over their shoulders, praying that it does not come to their shores.

There are many people that are affected by it, no doubt. So far, Mexico seems to be the worst hit place of all. It is the country with the strongest strain of the virus. Already at least 159 people are dead there and many more were hospitalized.

The virus itself is something that seems to form from science fiction. It is a mixture of the strain between the original swine flu, bird flu and human flu strain in creating a virus in pigs that jump to human and can be fatal if our anti-bodies are not strong enough.

Governments all around the world have also been exposed as to how badly prepared they are to deal with an outbreak of a flu pandemic should it occur. The “most prepared” country in the world is reported to be the United Kingdom, and it is the only country that has enough flu-shots to give to half her population. Half! That is pathetic. What has happened to all the promises that governments gave that they would be prepared for a global pandemic in the aftermath of SARS and the avian flu? It is sad that politics is put ahead of the lives of people all over the world.

However, in my study of this, I stumbled upon something that really shocked me. 300,000 people are dying every year due to … regular flu! We fear something that has the possibility to be a pandemic but we do not seem to worry about a disease that we see every other day that can kill. Why is that so?

Of this number, 10 % comes from the US alone, the richest country in the world which houses 5% of the world’s population. That is something that is very sad. America cannot even fight the flu and I fear that it cannot fight other diseases that could be pandemics in the future.

The sad part to all this is that all this can be avoided. There are flu shots available. Many people can get a flu shot and that would keep them immune for a year. Why can’t we set a national standard in all our countries that we should get a flu shot every year so that our respective nations do not get flu? We can make people pay taxes, traffic fines and bail out corporations; what is so difficult about giving them a shot that would keep them immune from the current strain of flu?

There are professionals out there that fear that flu strains should be taken care of by our anti-bodies. They fear that if we get flu shots every year, should a stronger virus come about our anti-bodies would be too weak to resist it at all and that would result in larger casualties.

I always state that we should allow doctors to advice and lead people on procedures when it comes to health care. So I would not go against the doctors that suggest against flu-shots, but I think we can agree that people that are prone to death from flu, the very young and very old, should be given a flu shot. After all there are people dying of flu every 2 minutes, something has to be done about that.

Where is the out-cry for the flu virus in general? Why is it that we are worrying so much about a new kind of flu and not the kind that is already killing so many people? 159 seems to be a bigger worry to people as compared to 300 000 for people these days.

To me, I think that this is hyped up by the media too much. Is there a scare, yes. There is always the fear of the flu evolving to become a super-bug, but I do not think that people need to worry about it as they are right now.

Please take general precautions. Wash hands regularly. Maintain personal and residential hygiene. Take the flu shot at least for this year when there is worry of the flu bug. If you are sick, please stay at home and rest. Wear a mask if necessary.

The world has been through SARS and the avian flu, we should not worry about the swine flu too much. We do need to close our borders yet. AIDS have spread with the help of modern day traveling and we did not close it down then, why should we now? We just need to be wary and keep ourselves clean.

President Obama and other leaders around the world are right. Be vigilant but not worried. So chill!

** To all those people that has been affected by the swine flu or other forms of flu, the crew of ST send our sympathies to you. We do not wish to hurt your feelings when we wrote this article.**

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