Friday, June 12, 2009

The "Safest" and Mildest Pandemic Ever?

Yesterday (or is it today?), WHO raised the pandemic level of Influenza A(H1N1) to maximum level 6 (meaning full blown pandemic). [Source] With confirmed cases reach 29,669 including 145 deaths over 74 countries, the mortality rate is "still" less than 1%. [Source]

And the symptoms are "only" flu-like, including fever, cough, headache, muscle and joint pain, sore throat and runny nose, and sometimes vomiting and diarrhoea, mostly mild. [Source]

So, do we have the "safest" and "mildest" pandemic ever? Well, I don’t think so. Had the WHO not raised the pandemic level to level 5 in earlier date:
  • many would have died because they were not managed (quarantine and/or hospitalised) properly and swiftly;
  • and the spread would be too hard to control;
  • and with more spreading, mutation from the "mild" influenza may become more rapidly developed and probably deadlier;
  • besides, we do have mortality eventhough it is lesser than 1%, but death is still an unwelcomed result.
So, bravo to WHO for their fast action. But still, we always want to ask them to be faster than "most" fastest. :D

11 comments:

Reanaclaire said...

those symptoms seem to be very common, right? so common that we dont know for sure they r really h1n1 or not.. hv to go for blood test then only can confirm..by then, so many got infected already.. .

Anonymous said...

in my medical opinion, i dun think this is pandemic level 6. Pandemic-6 will only happen if the disease spread millions of ppl within 24 hours and millions die from it. that's when we call it as pandemic-6.

this is just normal new disease.

at least, people are not turn into some ugly-zombies like hollywood movies...right?

MariaFaizal said...

KY,
Does it matter what level of Pandemic? All i know as long as the disease is fatal (& highly contagious!), I'm gonna be as alert as possible (for my kids).

Cheers bro!

Kay Leaf said...

Buy Olsemitavir from me

Chloe Ling said...

level 6 already leh.....scary scary....

KY Chua said...

Thank you all (ReanaClaire, DeePo, Maria/Faizal, Kay, Chloe) for dropping by. ;) To answer ye all please check your individual reply below. Have a nice day ye all. :D

KY Chua said...

Claire, it's so common that a common cold become "uncommonly" feared, especially if you're just coming out of the plane. :)

KY Chua said...

DeePo, deadly flu used to be of high mortality one because of various reasons (wide and not easy to monitor human migrations through various routes, poor information and/or warning dissemination and/or sharing, delay in treatment, no effective medication or medical approach, etc.). As told by the WHO person, the level 6 only concerns the "global" part not the severity...

KY Chua said...

Maria/Faizal, it doesn't matter what pandemic level there is. :) Highly fatal? *shrug* I would have to disagree with you. Highly contagious? Maybe, perhaps as contagious as a common flu (which is very high). :) Apa-apa pun (Whatever the matter), you're right, we must be as alert as possible, even if it's a common flu. People gets afraid of H1N1 because of the publicity, and the "initial" high mortality (in Mexico) when only few confirmed cases were detected...

KY Chua said...

Kay, how was Sandakan? :) I thought flu drug can only be prescribed by specialist, no? Perhaps you know some specialist then? :D

KY Chua said...

Chloe, don't scare, I'm here. :D