Everyone who has been anywhere near a TV, connected PC, newspaper, or the office water cooler must surely have been pretty familiar with this whole Swine Flu (H1N1 A Influenza) business already.
There are a great deal of suggestions and various measures being undertaken to avoid the great flu coming here. The heat sensors being set up at the airports (at least in Penang), newspapers telling us what we should do to avoid getting the flu, and our government is assuring the people that every measure is taken to keep us safe.
Yesterday’s news – Temporary freeze on permits for pork imports
Today’s news – 1.7 million pigs to be vaccinated against flu mutation
As far as I know (from the various news source and wiki entries), the current H1N1 A Influenza is a new strain of virus that consists of genetic materials from similar virus that infects human, birds, and pigs.
The nickname swine flu was rather unfortunate for there is no evidence that the current strain was originated from pigs. H1N1 A is trasmitted from human to human, not pigs/birds to human, though there is also a newly identified case of farmer transmitting the virus to his pigs recently. (Pigs are unique in a way that they can get flu from birds and human, in addition to their fellow piggy friends) /pig.
Many are afraid, but few has the right reasons to.
Yes this is “new” disease that we don’t know alot about, and it is potentially lethal. But lets put things into perspective, H1N1 A (stop calling it swine flu already) has 23 confirmed cases so far, all in Mexico except one. One the other hand, malaria is killing 1 to 3 million people every year.
The danger of overreaction is very real. Hospitals swarmed with people who are afraid that they might die as soon as they exhibit a little bit of symptoms might be denying other legitimate patients.
There is also a history on these things, the US incorrectly declared a pandemic on swine flu in 1976 and ordered the whole nation to go through inocullation. The result was 1 death from flu, and 20 others from inocullation itself.
Of course, closer to home, I still wanna eat my damn pork!
thats so bad. until people dont want to comment on this post… scared kena spread by submitting comment… scary…..
no siu yok for teh sux
ya it fucking cancelled my fully sponsored Japan trip to an Asian Conference held by Imperial College just because the Rector and others are afraid of coming here to Asia!
Ok i’m just bitter :'(
aeroplane1234,
Ya very teruk!
suanie,
I need my siu yok!!
christock,
Wah really that’s very horrible. LOL teruk!
pork chop pork chop…
Oh weeeelll, I thought I had swine flu (whoops I mean H1N1 A) for a bit there, but I suppose I don’t considering I’m still alive. Hopefully there’s no incubating period? Errr …
That’s it, I’m staying far far away from everyone who comes back from Mexico with a flu now. RARRR!
PinkPorkChop,
Hahhahahaa
Mellissa,
H1N1 A or not I’ll still love you okayyy 😀
no siew yuk, no bak kut teh, no fah lam yuk, no char yuk, no marmite pai kuat….
die lah..
calvaryzone,
That’ll be very very tragic :S
Hahaha, have you mentioned that normal masks are not effective, and people need to buy the special N95 mask?
Agree agree. i still wanna eat my damn pork and I just had a pork burger in Krabi. best!
Eh, I don’t mind getting it. It’s like a 7 day vacation and no one outside Mexico (except for the Mexican kid in US) had died of it. w00t.
We still BKT weren’t we?
Aiyo i hope pudu siew yuk doesn’t shut down T____T
yauhui,
That’s another myth :S
eiling,
Yesss, stimm right?
Huai Bin,
Hahhaa I think you can afford a better vacation than the hospital right?
Myhorng,
I hope so!
Tan Yee Hou,
Oooo noo! The horrorrrr
the intelligence that surrounds this place is astounding. you hear on the radio that they are announcing that the flu is not spread by consumption of pork and should no longer be called swine flu. the next day you read in the papers that they’re banning imports of pork to curb the spread of the disease.
that’s kinda like contradicting themselves, isn’t it.
I WANT SIU YUK FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i had pork for every meal i had today..best!
Enoch,
Ya, this thing is seriously getting out of hand.
sotong,
ME TOO!
Yatz,
Hahaha so keng.
Don’t worry bro, pork is still safe for consumption la, Just bloody ensure that the owner cooks for more than 70C.
Aiyo, we can bring our own termometer marr..
Dude, it’s flu, you don’t get normal flu by eating random stuff, you don’t get swine flu by eating an infected pig. You get the flu by having an infected person sneeze you all over or touch you, then bringing your hand or touched part to your mouth or nose for the fluids to enter your respiratory system. Or by defect, having an infected live pig sneezing or breathing on you.
Oh, there’s rumors that this swine flu thing was man made and used as a test for a future biological weapon, since there’s no farms with pigs in Mexico city and DF.
SK,
It is safe to eat, but we’re already limiting imports.. -_-
Positronic,
Exactly my point! But I disagree with the second part tho..
U still can eat pork, make sure is well cooked
Wouldn’t want to take any chances.
Vernice,
Yesss pork!
KH,
On the same token, can’t go anywhere cos you might get into an accident? After all, the chances are much much higher
let’s hope we are all ok here =/
it is all because of KY!
drewnity,
I sure hope so!
yapthomas,
Cis!!!