Aug

12

The sunny side of swine flu season

August 12, 2009 posted by indiatime |

Swine flu, the epidemic that has lately been ravaging India, is said to be a little uncomfortable with warmer climates. Yesterday, when India’s health minister was tauting India’s early efforts in successfully stemming the swine flu tide, most Indians knew that the slow early uptick in swine flu infections had little to do with governmental interventions and a lot more to do with the much hotter summer climate of a few months ago. With temperatures across India dropping down several degrees, H1N1, having survived the early shock of India’s heat, seems to have come back with a vengeance.

That also means H1N1’s days in India are limited. Sure, there will be many more victims at the rising rates being reported daily. But October is around the corner and having never lived in India, H1N1 has no idea what it’s in for. In fact, October heat in India is at times much harsher and much inhabitable for most living things. It is a lot harder to take than the hot summers that Indians have always been used to. And hiding in between a comfortable post-summer fall and the cooler breezes of November, October stands like a mean-spirited bully that won’t budge.

This year though, India can’t wait for October to be here. Watching innocents die day after day, of a flu that none of us had ever heard about, having nothing to do with pig farming, and having to suffer for some other civilization’s dietary and hygiene habits, none of it all makes any sense. But then again, nothing ever last for ever, and so won’t this deadly swine flu season. Some have recently suggested that even planet earth’s days in the universe are almost over.

But you and I may not have to wait for that to see the end of swine flu. A few more rotations of planet earth will tilt the planet just enough to drive swine flu out of its comfort zone here in India. Six more weeks. And the normally unwelcome October will find many takers this time around. And then we’ll here the health minister once again, speaking about how the government’s policies made H1N1 run away with its tail between its legs. And thus will begin yet another political season.


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3 Comments so far

  1. naren on August 12, 2009 8:19 pm

    I disagree on one count-We are not so innocent of pig farming although we hardly recognize it as such. There are scores of pigs scavenging through dumpsters of any city in India. It is well known that these are not random stray pigs. Theybelong to ‘pig-farmers’ who let them rampage and eat everywhere, then one day collect themall and take them to their fatal destiny. It is a business operating at no cost. It is amazing we didn’t have out own indiginous swine flu already.

  2. Public on August 13, 2009 12:58 pm

    How to avoid swine flu affecting IT Engineers…..govt has to declare holidays to IT industries also…why don’t the govt follow one week of India bund….so that no public will be found outside the road because this flu will be alive in air for 6 hours

  3. Sam on August 14, 2009 12:37 am

    We need to get rid of REAL PIGS in politics, national as well as regional ones first.

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