Awareness key to containing swine flu

Manish Goswami
KOLKATA, Aug 1 – The possibility of a pandemic has emerged as a real threat to mankind. Worse, the pandemic strain of the viruses knows no geographical barriers and can rapidly spread across the world and the population has no immunity against it. And if such a pandemic occurs, it may claim between 2 and 7.4 million people across the globe.

Stressing the importance of dissemination of proper information-the only way to contain the pandemic threat – Dan Rutz, who chairs the Global Health Communication Team in the National Centre for Health Marketing for The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, USA, disclosed that the people must be prepared to face the threat.

“A pandemic – be it in the form of bird flu or swine flu- can, apart from deaths, causes severe social disruptions and economic loss. Swine flu has already claimed 816 lives so far. With no effective vaccines in sight, preventive steps are the only way out to contain the spread of the disease. Awareness campaigns at all levels to an extent will come handy in the fight against the pandemic influenza,” Rutz said.

Addressing a workshop for journalists on 'Reporting Avian and other Pandemic Influenzas’ here, Rutz, who is involved in developing communication strategies as an integral component of crisis preparedness, disclosed that like other threats this too can be faced boldly without the need to panic.

“The people must be aware about the symptoms of the disease and how to keep it at bay. A well- coordinated awareness campaign holds the key to combat it and to buy time to evolve cure to get rid of it.”

Dwelling on the first signs of a pandemic Rutz said that initially clusters of respiratory illness are noticed from one region and it may spread rapidly from the family members to the health workers and the general population.

“The affected person may have trouble in breathing, pain or pressure in chest or abdomen, sudden dizziness, severe vomiting besides other flu-like symptoms which improve but return with a worse cough. So if such cases are identified at the earliest it would be possible to initiate steps to contain it in the area before letting it spread.”

Rutz pointed out that washing hands, avoiding contact with the sick people, avoiding touching nose, eyes, and mouth, and refraining from travelling to the affected areas may to some extent help in preventing the spread of the disease. Quarantine of patients is a must.

Highlighting the factors which may help to ward off the threat, Rutz said that coordinated planning and implementation, public health response, global surveillance and medical research for vaccines will help in the fight against the disease.

“The stress is on to limit death and illness from either swine flu or bird flu and to minimize the economic loss”

Coordinating the two-day workshop held at the American Centre here, Joan Mower, Director, Development and Public Relations at the Voice of America emphasised the active cooperation and coordination of the journalists worldwide to tackle the threat.

“Scribes with their acute and focused reports can not only help in making the people aware of the disease but will also help the global agencies in chalking out their strategies against the pandemic threat.”

Earlier, inaugurating the workshop, Consul General Beth A Payne said that India and the United States are partners in the global effort to meet the twin challenges of avian flu and H1N1 influenza. She informed that the US Agency for International Development is funding a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization project to build regional cooperation and coordination among India and its neighboring countries to combat the cross-border transmission of the influenza. ASSAM TRIBUNE