H1N1 Outbreak

The H1N1 outbreak has just hit Malaysia yesterday (The Strait Times, 16/05/09). The victim was identified as a 21-year old male student who had just returned from the US on Wednesday and developed a fever, sore throat and body aches the next day. This is indeed a very bad piece of news to me. I worry for my relatives staying in my home country, Malaysia, as the H1N1 is a very contageous virus and can infect human beings easily. I am also scared that it may reach Singapore as Malaysia is just accross the causeway and there are many Malaysians visiting Singapore daily be it for work or for holiday.

According to the news report, the number of H1N1 infected people has taken a large scale jump from about 1000 people to 7500 people estimated. A lot of countries have been invaded by the invincible and not so deadly "H1N1 ARMY". Surprisingly there is only 65 deaths so far since the virus first appeared in Mexico last month. Therefore it is believed that the H1N1 virus is not as dangerous as most people had feared. What do you think ?.

I believe that the best way to prevent the spread of the virus is to avoid going out to heavily crowded places. It is everyones responsibility to put a stop to the spread of the "H1N1 virus". I also believe that prevention is better than cure. Our school, Hwa Chong Institution is doing the right thing, making us monitor our daily temperature and getting us to be responsible for our health (SMB, 15/5/09, message from Sung Kah Kee).