Epidemics know no borders. They know no race, no language or religion. The WHO has declared the H1N1 (Swine flu) as the first global pandemic in 41 years. As of 17:00 GMT, 15 June 2009, 76 countries have officially reported 35, 928 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection, including 163 deaths.

In 2 weeks, India has moved from cautious to infected. The numbers continue to grow on a daily basis. For a disease that is highly contagious and with symptoms that could be easily mistaken for common ailments, the danger is omnipresent for a nation like ours – rich in people, average in medicare and poor in awareness.

Thankfully, India has finally raised a travel advisory yesterday. They have also requested for infected nations to screen air passengers at the source rather than just at the destination. The media is trying to bring in awareness to the masses and doctors and hospitals immediately refering suspect cases to the Govt. medicare centers.

Despite all this, a suspect escaped from a hospital quarantine a couple of days back. Officials were seen desperately trying to track down fellow passengers from flights that brougnt in confirmed cases to the country. Govt. centers are trying to arrange for adequate stocks of Tamiflu and Relenza. All this as research is now showing that H1N1 can further mutate to resist these drugs and yet hoping for a vaccine in then next 3 months.

As science tries to find a solution, and research better ways to counter the threat, we must acknowledge that no one  is beyond this danger. Thankfully H1N1 is still treatable and many nations are already prepared to (hopefully) contain it.

Prevention is better than cure. If you are interested to know more about H1N1, visit the WHO pages for:
- All about H1N1 and latest updates
- What each of us need to know about reducing risk of infection
- How we can help our our communities fight this dread

Spread the word! Awareness is the need of the day.

Image Courtesty: WHO

Popularity: 31%

Hooray! its election time again!!

And as usual, we seem to be scouring for leaders. Leaders with enough money and musclepower to wield every possible option to make it to the list of the “untouchables”… Untouchable by the long arm of the law, untouchable by social issues, untouchable by the pain and suffering of the millions!

While the systems and processes in place are making their best effort to ensure that crime and criminals are kept outside of the electoral process, it will be but a surprise to see a seamless election that lives up to the book. Thanks to the critical (and at times, uncensored) media, today there is a little bit of more awareness on our beloved leaders. Unfortunately, memory is short lived and there are the millions who decide the course of a nation that they little understand about. People who believe in the strange ways of Nature and International politics that stops us from becoming the greater nation that we can be.

That said, all is not lost – surely we have come very far from where we were 20 years ago. Not just the cities, even the towns and the villages do show stark difference – power, telecommunications, media, healthcare, education, food – you name it! It would be incorrect to say that no government did anything or even to say that just one government did everything. Despite all the claims of corruption and cheating, we have surely made a lot of progress as a nation – and this cannot be denied. There are the few who have been honest and brave and have done more than a part for this to happen. Strange as it may seem, our strength lies in our ability to make the best and the worst co-exist peacefully in their own spheres. Economically, socially, culturally we are making progress!

Running a country is by no means easy.

It is easy for each of us to sit back in front of our computers and blog about how we want to mould our nation. Tiny drops of water make the mighty ocean – exercise your franchise without fail. Fear not for the worst, for I hope the darker days are fading. We may not see ourselves getting the absolute best politicians in our lifetime, but we can surely hope to see a few who will make the difference and lead us in the right direction.

Love, they say, is blind. Just how much love the true Indian has will stand out in these elections – love for money, alcohol, power, sleaze and power. Undoubtedly, everything is debatable, but time will tell how things move. For me, its just one more small step that gently reminds us of our duty to our motherland. And its just another miracle that makes us Indians so truly Special!

Image Credit: Ramesh Lalwani

Popularity: 14%