H1N1 Influenza A

Since the outbreak of swine flu, now known as the Influenza A H1N1 virus, the virus has quickly spread from originating in Mexico to North America, Europe and Asia. Countries all around the world are stepping up health measures as a response to the WHO raising the pandemic alert to level 6, but we have seen more and more cases of the virus spread faster and wider to many other countries, so are these measures really effective and adequately in place?

Given the rate of globalisation and how our world is shrinking in terms of connectivity and communications, it is not hard to see why the virus is starting to become a little bit uncontrollable. For example, in 2008 alone, Changi Airport handled a total of 37.7 million passengers, and given this massive passenger flow, one can highly doubt that the measures put in place, such as temperature screenings and ensuring minimal contact between the public and the suspected cases, are really effective although they might be adequate as the standard procedures that we have gone through many times since the SARS and Avian Flu days.

Furthermore, in the advanced age we live in today, it is inevitable in this fast paced society that before the MOH gets to a suspected case, that that particular person might have had close contact with at least two other people. This is why I feel that it is already a marvellous achievement to have contained the cases to just around 300 since Singapore’s airport is one of the busiest in the world and we are after all highly connected to other infected countries. Therefore, while the measures taken into place might be adequate for a pandemic such as this, given that the world is closely linked together and the pace of society, it simply cannot be effective as a measure of controlling the virus.

Furthermore, China has very quickly started developing a vaccine for the virus and this shows how quickly the world and not just China can act and respond in the face of a possible global disaster. Countries have gone from resisting Mexicans and Americans to in fact accepting and containing the disease to keep it from being widespread in their own countries. While the spread of the virus is in fact irresistible, we can ensure that it does not grow at an alarming rate such as how virus cells multiply. With that, I would think that the measures taken are adequate as well as somewhat effective.