In what to many may seem a desperate move to control swine flu among school students the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration yesterday closed around 400 schools in the Thai capital for a clean up. Meanwhile schools under direct Ministry of Education control in the city remain open as do most other schools throughout the country. This move follows close behind the government decision to close tutorial schools and seek voluntary closure of Internet cafes for a two week period.
Thai TV newscasts yesterday carried pictures of students and staff from the closed schools actually at their school washing everything with soap and water. Now I am not a flu expert but I do know that the virus has a limited life span once it is released from the host so washing desks and the like would seem to be a bit of a wasted effort.
True it might create a feel good factor or be a booster to public confidence but you only have to look at the news pictures of Pattaya bar girls scrubbing the street of that city a few weeks ago to realise there is a thin dividing line between fact and what might well be seen as government propaganda.
One of the best pieces of advice given by all leading authorities to avoid contamination is frequent hand washing using soap and water. Now this is fine if you are at home but if you visit a public toilet or indeed one at a place of entertainment or school in Thailand, while there may be running water, there is never any soap.
Its just a thought but perhaps the powers that be might be better employed spending funds on providing decent hand washing facilities rather than wasting soap and water cleaning desks and corridors at the countries schools.
When Avian Flu, which continues to threaten Thailand, is detected the most effective way of dealing with it seems to be by culling chickens. Which leaves me hoping that the boffins who thought up the swine flu clean up don't suddenly come up with a plan to employ the Avian Flu approach to infected students, if cleaning the countries schools fails to halt the spread of the virus.
OK I promise to clean up my act, no more swine flu news from Thailand this week.
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6 comments:
Mike , Well I've washed my hands so much lately that they are raw , ,but I go to the market and to our local vendors selling food ,everyday and it's bussiness as usual and no time or place to wash hands on the side of the road , I see a few wipe things off with a towel and then I realize that the towel is the same one they used yesterday and it hasn't been washed out in days ,and when we go to the big city to shop ,noone is taking any precautions at all ,well maybe 1 out of 100 ,if that many , noone at tesco lotus the bus station ,immigration, our local ampour and city hall and certianly noone in our small village , SOoooooo I wonder what all this closing of schools and inter-net cafes have to do with the control of the PIGGGY FLU. The best way to control it is for people to do a few things to take care of themselves, LIKE eat healthy, get plenty of rest ,wash hand as often as you can and quit playing with the pigs ....Malcolm
The flu virus survives some hours outside the body, but then still needs to be moved to the mouth or nose to have a chance to infect. This washing the hands and trying to avoid rubbing the nose is a much better prevention than any of these disinfection runs. These are just a waste of money, pollution of environment, and even a way to scare the people - all just to give the imagination that "government is doing something". But Thailand isn't alone in this - when it had some cases in kindergardens here in Germany they also disinfected the buildings and closed them for a week, even though the second one would be enough to kill all virus in the building.
Malcom - you will not catch this virus from playing with pigs, it only originated in pigs but now it spreads from human to human. But it may get a chance mix with other flu viruses in pigs if someone infected play with pigs.
Besides, as WHO already said, it's too late to stop this virus now, one can only try to slow it until it has the immunization. And apparently it isn't worse than the normal seasonal flu, so all of this is simply hysteria.
More hysteria propagated by the WHO and CDC. You can bet that manufacturers of masks are very happy at this moment in time and I bet more than a few government officials hva invested in their companies.
I agree with Talen wholeheartedly, there is no common sense in the hysteria and Government propoganda, it really is as though this is being done for some hidden agenda, or for profit.
Mike your reporting of swine flu in Thailand is a helpful resource for people like me living elsewhere. The school scrubbing operation is a complete waste of time and money, the "feelgood factor" can be the only explanation to that one. I think the best policy now is for governments everywhere to just let the flu totally breakout and burn out, afterall there is no way of stopping it, certainly not with soap and water.
Thanks for all the responses. I guess the debate will be with us for some time to come.
I would love to read a report from someone who has had the virus. Which I am sure would put things in perspective, however recovering patients don't seem that news worthy-I wonder why?
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