The Scary Swine Flu Issue

 

By: Sunart

After the issue of SARS, bird flu, now the world is shocked by the issue of swine flu. The government and WHO asked that this term should be replaced with the issue of Mexican Flu or H1Ni Flu. But still, people are more interested and easily call it Swine Flu. I do not know why the issue of Swine Flu is so echoing throughout the world. Even dozens of heads of state took part in talking and making new policies. What's behind the swine flu issue?

In fact, the number of victims is still much smaller than the number of deaths due to diseases: coronary heart disease, blood vessels, tuberculosis, and even traffic accidents. Deaths due to coronary heart hundreds of thousands per year in Indonesia. Every day hundreds of people die because of it. Why not excited? The answer is because it is common or not interesting to be appointed. Furthermore, because it is not profitable for vaccine manufacturers, etc.

If the Swine Flu is really scary, why aren't we prepared to take steps to prevent it. It's strange that some parties, even government officials, actually made statements on their readiness with hundreds of swine flu referral hospitals? What does it mean? That we will definitely be attacked. In other words, we admit that resilience in the health sector is still weak. This seems to add to the community's new anxiety.

    The determinants of health or illness are strongly influenced by human behavior, the environment, health services and population factors. It is generally proven that the factors that most influence the incidence of illness in humans are behavior and the environment. Viewed from this point of view, the issue of swine flu should have been more appropriately responded to by policy readiness to change behavior and the environment. Public health service efforts should prioritize prevention and promotion (health behavior education).

    The government has not shown its serious readiness in dealing with various possible new cases that will continue to develop. In addition to global environmental change factors, it is very possible that excessive human behavior will create new risk factors for disease. Prioritizing prevention policies over treatment should become a new paradigm that is very suitable for dealing with cases of a type of swine flu (infection) or other types of disease.