now that we're in mitigation phase.........

As of last Friday, Malaysia has put its H1N1 control from CONTAINMENT EFFORT to MITIGATION PHASE. That's just a fanciful way to say that at this point, the H1N1 virus is already present in the general population, and the effort to quarantine and contain cases of H1N1 patients would bring very little fruitful results.

So now, what can be done is just to minimise complications, treat those who are ill, and hope for the best. Nevertheless, investigations are still being carried out just that contact tracing will be reduced and people will not be put under quarantine anymore.

Hospitalisation and isolation is still done, only to those who might get severely ill from this flu.

To make thins simple, these are the important few things to remember as we are in this phase now...

1. Social Distancing - 1 meter or 3 feet from potentially sick people, and avoid crowded places. This can sometimes be impossible (ie in the lifts, public transport etc) but remember also that significant contact occurs when someone splutter respiratory fluids / tampias on you or you're within 1 m radius of a H1N1 patient for approximately 4 hours
2. Protect yourself - the 3 ply masks (surgical masks) are good enough when traveling out in crowded place, although N95 is best but can be costly nowadays. I saw N95 being sold for RM15 at Sandakan airport. The point of the mask is to filter out the air that we breath in, so if we adjust the mask so much so that we breath easily like normal, chances are we're wearing it wrong. We should be slightly uncomfortable when wearing a filtering mask. Logic, right?
3. Proper hygiene - wash hands with soap often when in public places. We don't need a Phase 6 Pandemic Influenza to teach us this.
4. Cough / Sneeze Etiquette - disposable tissue best, handkerchiefs alternative. Sleeve, hand, or even turning away while sneezing into open air is bad. Close, close, close that orifice.
5. If not feeling well, seek medical attention.
6. Call the bugger by its proper name - no more swine flu please... Human-swine Influenza is still okay, but Selsema Babi is just wrong... Influenza A (H1N1) how difficult is it to say it right?

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