The return of the Dukkar

Blame me for selling the chocolates which are the flavour of the season..but really can’t help it...I mean who wants to be out of fashion ?....

Well the topic of this post is none other than a Dukkar (The English have given it a fancy name SWINE...sophisticated you know!!). The Dukkar has just started giving us its flu and well its kind of more dangerous coz…Bird flu, when it was the flavor of the season dint spread that wildly..even if we ate it( My tummy just burped!!!). The irony of the situation is that I don’t eat a Dukkar, why can’t it just stay inside its filthy and unhygienic body??....

Now that the virus has moved on from the home territory and decided to visit greener pastures, it decided to inhabit us humans ( Greener pasture for sure!)…and guess what its making news everywhere…People are falling on the roads like 9 pins ( at least the media makes it look like this)…its made all us humans look so much like the Dukkar(just look at yourself wearing the mask), I hope now you realize that the major symptom of this Dukkar flu is that it makes people look like Dukkars ( surprisingly even those who still haven’t received the virus!). Dirty swine (that sounded good, dint it?)

Getting a little serious I know this disease has scared all of us, and there is an air of panic. But is this panic justified?, are we all going to die because of it, even if it is a global epidemic we are going to have the vaccine available in no time. See we even have the cure of this disease, then what makes us panic. Now I remember reading certain reports saying that one third of India is going to suffer from H1N1 (that’s fancy too!..I admire the English or whoever named it). That’s one in three people, If we anyways going to get it then worry about it. Now compare this with chicken pox, more than 59% of Indians have had this disease, so are we scared of that disease?, are we wearing masks?,

Let me throw some facts on you ( don’t duck!), I hope I am able to create some kind of a panic situation at the end of this article

Deaths due to Chicken pox and small pox: During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300–500 million deaths.( http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Smallpox)

That’s around 3 million a year, that’s around 8219 deaths a day! Ok you might argue that this happens only in a few areas in India, but I guess we all are susceptible to it

Deaths due to malaria ( mosquitoes are everywhere and they bite too): It is estimated that in the world around 90% of deaths due to malaria happen in tropical Africa, and India still reports more than 75% of the world..and have a look at the severity of this disease in the world (http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Malaria_endemicity07.pdf) that’s from the WHO website

Now if I haven’t scared you enough let’s have a look, at some causes of deaths due to pneumonia is more than 2.1million among kids only according to UNICEF in 2007 that’s around 5753 children dying every day ( Whoaaa!!!)

Number of deaths on the road in India is 1.3lacks (http://www.india-server.com/news/india-has-highest-number-of-road-4241.html) that’s around 365 a day , and well we had 195 deaths in one day on 26/11, come to think of it we have a 26/11 every day in our country on our road (http://www.easydriveforum.com/showthread.php?t=2214)

The WHO estimated that HIV/AIDS caused 2% of all deaths and 6% of deaths due to infectious diseases in India in 1998. If current HIV/AIDS trends continue, by 2033, HIV could account for 17% of all deaths and 40% of deaths from infectious disease(http://www.kff.org/hivaids/upload/7312_02.pdf)

Now India has the second most number of deaths in the world due to terrorist activity i.e. 3674 people that’s around 11 people every day ( still more than the Dukkar Flu!!)

I know this can go on and on and on, but the point what I have been making is that diseases, deaths would happen come what may!, we haven’t stopped driving because of the deaths or injuries?, have stopped making love at the thought of contracting AIDS, have stopped coming out of our houses because of terrorist attacks or do we wear masks coz someone somewhere would be having pneumonia?

See the survival of humanity isn’t fickle, we have and will survive! So what do we do about our Dukkar? Take precaution!!(You dirty minds…stop giggling)

For your reference I am writing down a few things you can do to prevent the spread of this H1N1 ( there you go the sophisticated name again)

Proper hand hygiene:

There's a right way and useless way to wash hands and wash away micro-organisms. The object is to break down the protective membranes of germs, dislodge them from your hands and let them go down the drain. Plain soap in the right hands is strong stuff.

Cover your cough

If you must cough or sneeze, cover your mouth with a tissue, or the inside of your elbow (not your hand as you may then contaminate surfaces when you touch them). Throw the tissue away in a waste basket. Do not leave discarded tissues on your desk or other surfaces.

Then, wash your hands thoroughly.

The throw-it-away part is essential.

Micro-organisms live a life span from a few seconds to days on inanimate surfaces such as desks, table tops, faucets…tissues. If your tissues are scattered on your coffee table, they then are in contact with community surfaces. Both the tissues and the surface it sits on can spread germs to the person who touches the coffee table.

If you begin to feel ill: feverish, achy, have a dry, painful cough, sore throat, go home from school or work and call your health care provider for further instructions.

Together we can and we will make a difference