豬流感之我見

The best way to control pandemics is isolation, which is what relevant governments are doing this moment. Shut down schools and public areas to prevent the disease from spreading. The hospital normally uses 7 days as cut off date. If you do not develop any flu symptoms within 7 days after exposure to the virus, you should be OK. With that being said, my sense is that the situation will be under control in the US soon. There is a very effective system in position and people are well informed with the development. As long as we aware the situation, we should be fine.

I think China has learned its lesson from SARS. The worst thing to do in this situation is to hide the problem due to concerns about national image. I am sure there is a better and more effective system in position now than a few years ago.

The most important and positive information is the H1N1 virus itself that causes swine flu. Based on the current data, this virus has a low virulence, which means the virus from one infected subject can only transmit to a few people. Secondly, there is limited transmission. It has only been found that the virus can spread from the primary patient to secondary patient(s), but no more. The secondary patient(s) are not infectious. Thirdly, now is not a flu season. It is too hot for the virus to spreading to large populations. Lastly, there is an effective drug, Tami flu (an oral drug), available to prevent and treat the disease.

The suggestion for this situation is being vigilant, but not panic. Flu kills thousands people each year and every year., which is part of our life. The flu related death is most likely caused by complications, which makes certain population more vulnerable than others, such as children whose immune system have not fully developed and patients, such as cancer patients under chemotherapy whose immune system is compromised. For healthy adult, we probably can handle this situation. The bottom line is life should go on.