Hemagglutinin 1 Neuraminidase 1

No, its not the score of a soccer match! :) Its the latest health crisis in the nation.

Babe - the pig is back in the city; but this time with vengeance!
Swine flu has hit many countries and in India, the situation is worst here in Pune.

Schools and colleges have been closed for some days now in Pune. The malls and multiplexes are shutdown. In the evenings you can find small kids playing with their masks on.

At Amdocs, they're taking it quite seriously too. The company provides us with masks every Monday. Mails about swine flu awareness are sent quite often. Hand sanitizers are kept at many locations in a floor, so that people use them often. And they are thinking about letting the employees work from home too. We also have a doctor sitting in the ground floor for us to consult in case of any symptoms of swine flu.

Most of the people are wearing masks to protect themselves from the virus. But most of the masks available aren't effective or last for maybe a day only. Chemists sell ordinary surgical masks saying that they are effective against swine flu virus. But they are'nt. N-95 masks are supposed to provide you best protection. But even after so many cases here in Pune, the N-95 masks are'nt available easily. I've got mine. If you don't get an N95 for yourself, you can use the normal ones, but you've got to use your folded handkerchief once or some other cloth piece beneath or over the mask, as you need atleast three layers in your to be effective.

The chemists in Pune are trying to make profit at this time of panic and crisis by selling items like masks for crazy prices. One druggist told me that he would give me an N95 for around 500 bucks! One mask, which is supposed to be thrown away after being used for a day or two for 500! Many duplicate N95s are also there in the market. In a TV interview on a news channel yesterday( i believe it was aaj tak), the anchor asked our health minister, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, what he would do about these people who were taking wrong advantage of the situation. The minister replied that the masks were'nt meant for the general public, but was only for the doctors who were treating H1N1 positive patients and for the patients already affected by the virus, so that they dont spread the virus while coughing or sneezing. That is how it is supposed to be, according to the WHO or the CDC standards. But the panic always spreads faster.

The death toll is rising and 15 out of 23 deaths in the country have been from Pune; that would tell you how serious the situation is in Pune. The monsoon hit the city very late whn people here were praying for rains. And now when its raining, people want it to stop as it helps in spreading of swine flu.

And as precautionary measures against swine flu,

• wash your hands often with soap,
• do not take your hand to your face,
• do not rub your eyes,
• maintain at least 3 feet distance from a sick person,
• use a hanky while sneezing or coughing,
• avoid crowded places especially in cities like pune and mumbai
• if you are using a mask use a 3-layered one or dont bother taking the trouble :)

But these numbers are nothing when compared to the number of people dying all over the nation with diseases like malaria or pneumonia. Its only because H1N1 is new in the country that it has created so much panic here. And ofcourse there is the media hype too. Every day the front page reports about the number of cases reported in different cities in India. And to add to the panic our health minister had allegedly told in a Times of India interviewthat in the next two years, one-third of the Indian population would be affected by the virus. He however, in a TV news channel interview later, had denied the statement.

All this tension and hype will die out as few days pass by. We may just need to wait for the next Indian cricket series to start to turn the attention of the people.