Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Invisible Enemy Within Our Midst

Hantu Laut

When I wrote 'H1N1: Something Gone Terribly Wrong' on 13 Aug there were 44 deaths.Today, the deaths stand at 67. In just a week 23 more people have died from the disease.Those are just the reported cases, there could be some unreported or wrongly diagnosed cases.

The government apathy towards the greater danger that this disease could manifest into new strain endangering the lives of greater number of Malaysians is unbelievable.The Health Minister's statement that the government would only consider calling an emergency if there are new waves of infection and when the mortality rate rises above 0.4 percent is certainly not taking a holistic approach to the problem.

The government may be looking at the wrong numbers.Where they got the 0.4 percent as the threshold before drastic action could be taken to curtail public activities and closing down of public places is a puzzle.The reality is Malaysians are dropping dead faster than most countries that got the pandemic.This is due to government inaction and the people apathetic view of the insidious danger of this invisible and voracious serial killer.

The government need not shut down every public places, only those considered non-essential should be asked to shut down or reduce their operating hours as suggested in my earlier article here.


Malaysians may have to sacrifice their personal liberty and lifestyle for a short while if they do not want to become the next victim of this invisible enemy.

1 comment:

eddy said...

Bro, I am still waiting for the Government to declare the Darurat or Emergency. Maybe they are waiting for the figure 100 deaths before they do.

The Government ought to bite the bullet and do a Mexican as soon as possible. Everybody, all Malaysians should make the necessary sacrifices.