How many must die....

Wed 190809

How many must die? Yup, how many must die before the A H1N1 pandemic would be considered dangerous or critical enough for the Malaysian health authorities & Govt to act urgently to safeguard its citizen's lives?

ATM, as on today, this was the announcement posted on the Ministry of Health website...summarised & translated :

Total Deaths... : 67
Up to 19 Aug 2009 @ 9.00am a total of 1468 influenza like illness patients (ILI) are being treated in 86 hospitals incl 6 private hospitals throughout the country. From that total, 257 are confirmed H1N1 positive. At the same time 134 have been discharged.
Out of the 257 cases of confirmed H1N1, 36 are in ICU which includes 7 new cases while 4 cases have been moved out from ICU.
Fyi, no new deaths resulting from influenza A(H1N1) infection has been reported today.

Now, are those figures frightening or not? If me not mistaken, the total no. of infections had exceed 4,000! The number of deaths is higher than our neighbour's.

However, the powers-that-be were reported as saying that that is not the kind of numbers they go by in assessing the severity of the situation. More importantly, according to them, it is the percentage that matters! And that is now fluctuating between 0.1 to 0.4 only...a value of a steady or higher than 0.4 is the target no. of deaths to wait for!

And how do they arrive at the less than 0.4%? By multiplying the reported positive cases by 20 (but NOT doing the same for reported deaths) before using the figures as the basis to calculate the percentage of deaths! Their reasoning? Not all positive cases are reported! Now I ask you...are all deaths reported as being due to A H1N1?

So in plain simple English, MORE & MORE ppl must die before the MOH or the Govt would take action serious & effective enough to curb the spread of the disease! Now, is that a joke or what?

Is the MOH & Govt saying that those who had died and those going to die do not mean a thing? Not forgetting their loved ones who had to mourn their loss? More citizens must die and more suffering must take place among the living before they take action to protect its citizens? How many more must continue to sacrifice their lives in such a wasteful & needless way?

How would such ppl in the MOH & the Govt feel if their very own loved ones were among the dead? Would they continue to harp on MORE must die? Maybe they feel that their kind would be accorded the best help & treatment available while others, not so privileged as they are, would be the so-called "sacrificial lambs"? YOU tell me....

Well, I've chosen to write a bit here today about the A H1N1 threat facing each & everyone of us here in Malaysia...mainly cos it has also affected our daily lives. Leaving the home is now a risk. There is always the fear of contracting this deadly virus...deadly to the very young & to ole folks like us. One just needs to meet up with one A H1N1 positive (or carrier) case. With the present guidelines of providing treatment, chances are that one would get the anti-viral drugs much too late to be of any help...

And yup, me belong to the High Risk group, too! And me certainly wouldn't want to be part of the 0.4 percent stats that our high & mighty powers-that-be are still waiting for...

May God help all Malaysians...

In the meantime, be safe, my friends!