Morgan West
November 23, 2010
2:40 PM
Sociology 202
Since the overwhelming worry last year over the H1N1 flu, or commonly known as swine flu, there has been a decrease in worry in the bird flu or the H5N1 flu. The avian flu is much more dangerous compared to the swine flu, and yet people are not concerned with it. The bird flu kills three out of its five infected victims. A recent woman, who is 59, recently got the flu in Hong Kong last week. She was hospitalized, and did not seem to infect anyone else with the flu. This is the first case Hong Kong has seen in seven years. Although this is the first recent case in Hong Kong, it infects over five hundred people all over the world, killing three hundred of its victims. Large portions of the infected are from Indonesia, and for some reason this country has the highest percentage of fatalities due to the bird flu.
Although very sad that this woman was infected, I think that it is important that citizens do not forget about the H5N1 flu. If we were so concerned about the swine flue last years, that only kills about one in every two thousand, than there should be exponential concern over the bird flu. If educated on the flu, people may become more aware, therefore lessening the risk of spreading it throughout countries. This is a very serious global problem, because it is killing many people all over the world. I would like to see more government involvement in this issue, because it is very dangerous to all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/health/23global.html?_r=1&ref=health
1 comment:
Something I've noticed in these global sociology classes is that we don't really see something as a problem until it affects us. The swine flu was such a big deal because people we knew were getting it. Even my ex roommate was infected at one point. I think if people we knew were infected with the bird flu we would be making a much bigger deal out of it.
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