Swine Flu !!!!! Mr. Health Minister

Dear Mr. Health Minister,

For the past few months, H1N1 and Swine flu have become buzz words. It has spread to such an extent that WHO has declared a pandemic alert and in India, 20 people have lost their lives and many are infected. Have we not had a cholera outbreak in India and people have died? Have we not had a plague outbreak in India and people have died? Every year, hundreds die during the monsoon season due to diseases like Malaria and Dengue. Then why is that you have made H1N1 a big issue?

It started with Mexico and then spread across the globe. You started screening passengers at the airport, from long haul flights. I was in India 2 months back and filled in one such form and went through one such screening. The screening process was a big farce and a slap on the face our abstract healthcare system. People sitting at the counter took the form, never even gave me a look and attested it with the government seal. Is that screening? I can vouch that none of the people sitting on the other side of the counter were qualified to even become a compounder, leave alone being a doctor. This is the pathetic state of our healthcare system.

You set out a list of do's and dont's. We should maintain personal hygeine, drink boiled water, sneeze or cough with a handkerchief and dispose it off properly, wash our hands properly and overall remain clean. Thats what we do everyday. Its not rocket science, unless you have never done these things before. This what we have always been taught in school and at home. We always have been drinking boiled water, as the water you provide in our homes can, at best, be used for washing. This is not something for which you hold a pamphlet and pose for the camera.

Let me tell you why we are affected. I am not a health expert, but neither are you, so hope you wont mind, me giving you a piece of my mind:
- More than half of our population lives in rural areas, where there are no sanitation facilities, no clean water, no waste disposal mechanism and nothing that can be called personal hygiene.
- 60% of our financial capital and a sizeable proportion in other cities lives in slums. These slums which are very well shown in 'Slumdog Millionaire' for which your government had issues, are nothing but breeding ground for viruses and causes of all such diseases.
- You promise the world as these slums are your vote bank and then disappoint them.
- Our public healthcare system is screwed. Government hospitals are in pathetic condition and more often than not, doctors are on strike. No minister will ever go to such hospitals, except AIIMS. The surroundings of such hospitals are nothing to write about. Patients stand for hours in the queue, waiting for doctors to come and attend to them. These doctors are busy attending to patients in their private clinics, as you do not bother to pay them a decent wage.
- You allow industries (public and private) to dump wastes in drains, which clog them.
- You do not understand the difference between carbon footprint and your shoe footprint.
- You do not maintain the drainage system in any city, which again leads to water borne diseases.
- Railway yards and side of the tracks are waste disposing grounds and you do nothing about it.
- You make provisions to provide medicines and then do nothing when it is hoarded in the black market.

I am following your instructions to maintain personal hygiene but my surroundings do not support me. Please advise future course of action.

Many of the people who died due to the Swine flu had other underlying health conditions, which you chose to convieniently ignore and blame NRI's for importing the virus from abroad. Grow up Mr. Minister. The current state of cleanliness and hygiene in our country is a joke. Lets not even dwell on that side or it might become the second biggest issue to topple a government (first being onions). For all you know, due to the current state of hygiene in our country, Swine flu was always there and this virus was always breeding in our country. Just that you never had the capabilities to recognize it and needed a magic wand from Latino land to make you aware of it.

Yours respectfully
A law abiding, clean citizen.