Second wave of H1N1

Of late, the Ministry of Health has been sending out warning of the probable second wave of H1N1 infestation. You can read about the warnings on all major dairies. When I was in Beijing two weeks ago, the second wave of H1N1 already started there. With the bad experience in handling SARS some years ago, the authority was quick this time to put up very strict health screening at the airport. In addition, the private sectors were also quick to take preventive actions. In the department stores, you can see all the employees were checked for their body temperatures before started working. It seems those with body temperature higher than normal will be sent back for house quarantine.

I guess the China authority which was under scrutiny few years back due to their poor actions to SARS pandemic are taking serious preventive measure to safeguard its people. When coming back to Malaysia on 25^th October, we were requested to fill in the health declaration forms by the tour guide. But when we were passing through the health screening check point at KLIA at about 11pm that day, nobody seemed to be interested in collecting the health declaration forms from us as we were just walked through the thermal scanner without any screening.

I guess the authority is just saying one thing and doing another. When the first wave of H1N1 hit our country, there were very strict health screenings at the airport. I remember when I came back from Indonesia at that time, I had to go through long queue for health screening and the officers were collecting the declaration forms from each and every passenger. Merely after a few months when the infection rate becomes lower and lower, the authority starts to get slackened. Lip service alone is not good enough to prevent a second wave of H1N1, or the Health Minister is currently too busy for the infighting in his own party.