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Clueless about being Flu-less
Are you aware that June (about to be over in a day or two) is the Philippines’ Flu Awareness Month? No? I wasn’t aware of it myself. June to me is wedding month or back to school month or my mother’s and mother-in-law’s birthday month. It’s my own wedding anniversary month. June is even St. John the Baptist month but Flu Awareness?
No one’s ever brought up Flu Awareness (not as aggressively) if not for the H1N1 pandemic where the Philippines is figuring prominently in the roster of countries with an exponential rise in cases (we’re now 12th in ranking of over 90 affected countries). We even take credit for being the first Asian country to record a fatality. Thailand reported its first two H1N1 deaths a week later.
How did the Philippines become so prone to the new flu in the first place?
How come other Asian countries (except Thailand with over a thousand cases already) are only having trickles compared to the downpour of H1N1 transmissions that we have?
Okay. So their airports (think Hong Kong and Singapore International) are more equipped to detect cases and their governments are more prepared (with strong resolve and well-backed health resources, if I may add) to prevent the entry of H1N1 carriers (or manage their few existing cases). Hong Kong learned its lessons well from the SARS outbreak.
But RP also appeared ready for H1N1 (at first).
In fact while the virus spread wildly over the US, Mexico and Europe, we seemed to be doing fairly well in keeping it at bay. We were not even the first country in Asia to report a case of the new flu. Japan was. Unfortunately when the first cases entered our shores, we just lost control as the virus reached community transmission levels.
Here’s why. Pinoys are all over the world and it is really easy for us to catch and carry the flu home. June is also summertime in the US resulting in more Balikbayan traffic to the Philippines from (near) the epicenter of H1N1. As a nation of overseas workers and migrants, we are more exposed to the virus than any other Asian country. That’s why OFW’s and Balikbayans are supposed to undergo self quarantine as soon as they arrive.
But can you really make them?
With a 2 -week vacation which (to some) took a lifetime to save up for, I don’t think any OFW or Balikbayan would spare 5 to 7 days for self quarantine. I bet those 2 weeks are even tightly packed with outdoor and social activities the moment they arrive!
Not even jet lag can stop Balikbayans from sight seeing and spreading good cheer (and the virus) around. Some shop in malls and share their invisible H1N1 “pasalubong” with strangers or with friends and family during those endless parties and reunions where Filipinos keep to their “kissy, touchy ways”.
Those who catch the virus spread it in schools and work places whose toilets don’t have running water, let alone soap. The infected take cramped mass transport like jeeps, buses and the MRT, sowing H1N1 seeds in all directions.
Everyday new cases of the flu are recorded, and unlike in early weeks where the afflicted were mostly those who traveled abroad, the fresh cases are now coming from poor communities where hand washing is not a habit (but spitting is, grass or no grass).
Many of us don’t usually see a doctor (not for “trangkaso” at least) and take prescription into our own hands. Some even get into an antibiotic regimen (and not complete it), making the viruses or bacteria resistant to antibiotics and antivirals, and speed up mutation.
It’s really a lethal combination of our Flu-friendly culture and nature that makes the H1N1 virus love the Philippines more. Pinoys are global, recklessly “touchy-friendly”, and possess some bad habits that need to be unlearned.
Flu Awareness Month (I move to make this year-round) aims to reorient Filipinos on basic flu management and (the more basic) hygienic practices (many of these we already know) to make the country a little more inhospitable to the H1N1 virus.