Let’s not sit back over flu threat

It was first named Mexican flu and when Mexico protested, it was renamed swine flu and this annoyed animal rights activists.

Finally the World Health Organization coined a name that it was sure would annoy no one — Influenza A (H1N1).

The virus has so far killed 80 people and infected more than 11,000 in 42 countries.

The latest epidemic comes after one known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which started in Asia, killed 774 people worldwide after it hit in 2003. However, SARS still exists and is continuing to kill its victims.

H1N1 is already in Asia with Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, the Philippines reporting cases.

Still untouched

The good news is that Africa is still untouched by H1N1 save for some cases that were investigated in South Africa and Egypt, but found to be false.

So far, the continent has been hit by the bird flu, named H5N1 by WHO. But even this is limited — only in Egypt and Nigeria. In Egypt, bird flu, also known as Avian Influenza, has killed 27 people.

“Somehow, somebody decided to start this epidemic (H1N1) in very rich countries ... This helped all of us,” said Tonga’s Health minister Viliami Tangi at the recent WHO congress in Geneva. Currently, the fears of a global flu pandemic are very high as shown by the attention the WHO congress gave to the H1N1 virus.

The agency shortened its annual assembly to five days from nine to allow officials to compare notes on the virus and return home sooner to track the new disease.

At the congress, discussions on other diseases were put off to 2010, angering activists.

One such disease is Chagas, an insect-borne disease that has infected 14 million people, mainly in Latin America, and kills 15,000 a year.

But, the fact remains that in a globalised world, a flu crisis that hits on all continents would be a disaster.

This is a world that currently has thousands of international travel platforms and no country can control all entries to its territory.

Even shutting borders or airports cannot control the spread of an epidemic in a world already addicted to free movement of its residents.