Practical steps needed to check H1N1

Thursday August 20, 2009

I CAN understand the Health Ministry’s urgent and all-out attempts to get public cooperation in containing the spread of the A (H1N1) flu. To date, the disease has claimed an unproportionate number of lives and as such, all citizens should be truly concerned and do their part.

But is it practical to fine and/or imprison those with flu-like illness (ILI) symptoms but are found not wearing face masks?

How is the enforcement to be carried out? Who are going to catch the defaulters – the police or health officials? Don’t forget we have problems even to catch smokers in designated non-smoking areas. Also, those who litter are rarely reprimanded in spite of our anti-littering laws.

I can’t imagine how the whole process of identifying and confirming the sick can be done in public places or on the streets.

We are told that the ministry is hard pressed to provide sufficient medical personnel to handle all the suspected cases in hospitals and clinics and leave for medical staff has been frozen.

Now, we are talking about putting enforcers in public places to detect and catch those who are sick but not wearing face masks.

Are these enforcers to be equipped with thermometers, flu detectors or what? Or are all the suspects to be brought back to hospital for confirmation, adding to the already big crowd there? How sick does one have to be in order to be considered guilty for not wearing a face mask?

If a person is sick and indeed very sick, shouldn’t he be hospitalised rather than being sent to prison when he is unable or refuses to pay the fine? Also, to put these sick people in prison for not wearing masks, are we not risking infecting the whole prison?

If it becomes widespread in the prison, are we going to close the prison and send all the inmates home, just like we do for our schools and institutions of learning? Our prisons are said to be always overcrowded, so separate quarantine rooms are out of the question.

We should stop all these knee-jerk reactions and be more proactive and innovative in ways that are practical!

In this context, please look into how the hospital and clinical medical staff can render more speedy and effective treatment to all those who seek help.

It is not accurate to say that those infected were late in seeking hospital treatment. It is more accurate to say that the hospital delayed treatment for them. How many who sought treatment were first sent home only to be re-admitted when their conditions deteriorated?

In this critical time, the minister and his director-general should make more visits and get first-hand information on how exactly their medical staff is handling and coping with the situation on the ground in hospitals and clinics all over the country.

LIONG KAM CHONG,
Seremban.