Back to basic hygiene

THE front-page headlines in the last couple of days herald the return of influenza A (H1N1) into the public sphere. The virus, which until March 21 has taken 16,931 lives -- 77 of them Malaysian -- is back,
 if it ever went into hiding at all. The pandemic has spanned more than 210 countries and territories, the virus remaining active even as people settled back into the comfort of apathy. Should anyone die from this reckless slumber, the public will awaken again, and the hand-washing, facemask-wearing, shopping-mall-averting rituals will begin its rapid cycle once again.
That the virus has temporarily felled 59 schoolchildren in one swoop is evidence that this is not something that is going to go away just on the wings of wishes. The influenza pandemic is a recurring event and its spread is inevitable. So, when faced against something as virulent as H1N1, what defences do mere humans have? This time around, no one can claim to be ignorant of the warning signs. In the first place, the world had its first warning five years ago with the avian influenza H5N1. Then, last year, the H1N1 introduced itself to the world. And the pandemic is still riding on its first wave. The second wave has yet to hit; and it will hit, because pandemics come in at least two waves.

The only measures we humans can take against this pandemic is to contain or delay the virus from spreading at the source. But to do that, we need to be alert to the dangers, to the symptoms, and to our role in all this. For a brief few months last year, Malaysians religiously scrubbed their hands clean enough for surgery, slathered copious amounts of antiseptic hand-wash at the office reception, pushed lift buttons with their elbows and opened doors with their shoulders. They wore surgical masks, avoided crowded places, and when they were ill, they stayed away from the public. Everyone was made responsible for everyone's health, and almost everyone was conscious of it. And then as the deaths abated, the fear faded away and the alertness and sense of communal responsibility died. At the end of the day, good hygiene may not be enough to save us from H1N1. But it can dramatically cut down the chances of infection or transmission, and may save us from a myriad other things that can make our lives miserable -- typhoid, diarrhoea, the common flu, for instance. We have been forewarned.

NST Online 2/4/2010