With the fall in temperature, swine flu is spreading rapidly ― as expected. What has been less expected, as ordinary people see it at least, is the morbidity of the influenza A (H1N1) virus that is turning out thousands of new patients daily as well as its lethality that has taken lives even in the ``non-high risk'' group of relatively young, healthy people.
Listening to what health officials have to say, however, these fears may be exaggerated. Private experts also agree that although the spreading tempo of the new flu is alarming, its death rate is lower than that of the old, seasonal flu.
``If you believe the government and follow its precautionary rules, there is no need to worry,'' said a joint statement issued by four Cabinet ministers, referring to the normal precautions of washing hands, wearing face masks and staying at home when sick. Medical institutions have begun to give vaccinations to their staff, and pharmacies throughout the country have also started to provide antiviral drugs for anyone with prescriptions.
Of course, people would agree on the need to show more civic spirit and follow these preventive rules to help minimize possible contagion. But they would hardly agree that this is enough to solve their lingering concerns about the swine flu, which is developing into a new pandemic.
Most worrisome is how the government will contain the prevalence of the epidemic at schools, which experts say could turn into epicenters of swine flu any time, especially because it will take 50 days or so for the students to be inoculated and develop antibodies. Increasing the danger is school principals' reluctance to close down risky campuses with the annual College Scholastic Ability Test only two weeks away.
So it was right for the Ministry of Education to encourage educators to more flexibly close schools and classes, allowing for temporary or early vacation for all students, except for high school seniors, in risky areas. The ministry should go further to prepare for the possible occurrence of massive failures to take the test and work out ways to give them second chances.
Parents are also required to refrain from sending their sick children to school after just giving them fever remedies, lest they allow their abnormal educational fever to lead to fatal flu fever.
This notwithstanding, panic and fear-mongering will not help the nation tide over the latest epidemic, and ordinary citizens, for their part, will need to remain calm. It is problematic in this regard that some people are hoarding up on Tamiflu or Relenza through irregular channels or rushing to large hospitals designated as swine flu-treatment institutions at even the slightest sign of a cold, crowding out patients who really need intensive care.
By most appearances, the nation will likely get over the ongoing attack of the new flu if the health authorities manage to win this race against time by working out phased emergency steps until around mid-December, when they will be able to secure sufficient supplies of the vaccine.
Even after that, however, they should not rule out the possibility the new flu will strike again early next year. This means both the government and people cannot afford to let down their guard until they can regard it as just another seasonal flu.