Swine Flu Swine Flu

"Swine flu cases top 1,000 in Victoria" - The Age Online

"Victoria insists it's safe to visit despite the state's swine flu caseload soaring past 1,000 and Queensland rugby league stars being quarantined after playing in Melbourne last week.

The state's Acting Chief Health Officer Dr Rosemary Lester said there were now 1,011 cases of the H1N1 virus in Victoria, with 137 cases confirmed over the weekend.

She insists the state's response to the virus is proportionate to the risk it poses to the community." (read more)

That's an excerpt from today's The Age..

"Seventh H1N1 patient detected"-The Star Online

"PUTRAJAYA: A female Australian student has been confirmed to be the seventh patient infected with influenza A (H1N1) in Malaysia, said Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican.

He said the 15-year-old travelled with her mother from Melbourne on AirAsia X D7 2723 and arrived at the LCCT at 7am on Friday.

Her fever was detected when she went through the thermal scanner screening at the airport.

“She told our medical team that she had started having fever, cough and sore throat the day before arriving in Malaysia,” he said in a statement here yesterday." (read more)

And that's from yesterday's Malaysia's The Star..

"Dr Ismail said the AirAsia flight was carrying 258 passengers at the time."

So why do i post these excerpts?

I find that the media and politics here in Victoria

inexperienced and poor,

inept and unprofessional,

foolish and obnoxious.

i basically lost any descriptions i could remember to describe this utterly ridiculous situation the people here are in.

people may say there's no need for a panic with more than 1000 flu cases here in this state alone, which yesterday was just 874 cases out of Australia's 1000 cases,
but the whole thing shows the flaws and the ugly side of this place's news broadcasting and foolishness of its political heads.

out of the major five australian channels: ABC 1, SBS 1, 7, Channel 9 and Ten, only the news in ABC 1 and SBS 1 would report international news. ABC 1 having a specific segment for international news while SBS 1 for broadcasting other countries' news like China's CCTV, Indonesia's, Sri Lanka's, etc. BUT, only in the morning, where students are having classes and working adults are working. The other stylish and quality-looking news broadcast from 7, Channel 9 and Ten are just surface-deep. Unless Australia is in the spotlight of a certain news, then only it's being talked about, being reported about.

BUT, not all. Just mainly good news relating Australia, then they report, then they broadcast. News about how an Australian student with swine flu could fly out of Melbourne's airport only to be detected in Malaysia after being in the same plane with other 256 passengers, is totally not being mentioned at all. It's not like this is the first case where someone from Melbourne brought the flu overseas but still, none was reported at all!

What i'm saying is that the people here are not well-informed of what's really happening around the world, how other countries are doing to prevent the spread like Japan closing almost all of their schools to prevent the spread (unlike here ) and Hong Kong quarrantined the whole hotel because the 1st confirmed case is in it!

I think it's because these countries faced SARS and Bird Flu before and Australia, being inexperienced, has not done much to learn from those countries!

Before i start writing a book about all this, i will just list out in points what i'm trying to say:

• World Health Organisation (WHO) middle of May (about a month ago), has already urged restraint on Tamiflu in swine flu (read more) and "that antiviral drugs should be given to only patients most at risk" BUT Victoria here has been giving them like candies to whoever is displaying flu-like symptons during their "quarrantine" stage as they have now moved to "sustain" stage, finally giving treatment to high-risk areas and patients.
  

• The health authorities and doctors here are also 'funny', and funnily reported in 2 weeks ago's The Age article (read more). The article reported 'Australia's top doctor calls for swine flu calm' but did not really mention clearly, who. Unless it's this health officer Professor-someone that was mentioned afterwards. And other doctors from other states giving mixed statements on whether we should worry or not. And there's really one thing to note in that article:

" Australian Medical Association of Queensland president-elect Dr Mason Stevenson said the medical community was concerned Tamiflu would be ineffective against swine flu.

"The human H1N1 Brisbane strain, which has been circulating in Australia for the last few years, is already largely resistant to Tamiflu," Dr Stevenson said.

"Any cross-reactivity between the swine H1N1 bug and the human H1N1 bug will transfer this resistance." "

• Even the politicians are funny! Like the state's premier criticising other states' preventative measures as being 'silly' and gotta have others to talk back at him (read more), which i think he's just most probably trying to give excuses and to try bail himself out of the situation Victoria has gotten itself into.

• And the people themselves! With "swine flu parties" being done in US, the locals here are talking about it like it's chicken pox! (read more here and here)

Oh well i'm tired now.. gonna go back to studying..