Influenza A H1N1....where 's the fire??

The hot news in the media and online forum is the H1N1 virus making its way across borders. Strangely on the local vet websites, only a few dared to post anything...Dr KPC, Dr HT and Dr AR...most are sitting on their hands/mouths?.

I just returned from NZ where there are confirmed 6 cases, and they seem to be very sane and methodical in their Emergency Response Plan. We seem to be all at sea on the vet front in Malaysia although the MOH and all the CIQ people are doing all the right things so far. Bravos and kudos to the masked port health staff at the entry points. They are the ones who deserve some incentives or a step up in their payscales when this blows over.

The swine influenza virus H1N1 has been around for ages ( 30 years ..a long time in these IT age). many pigs exposed to Greyhaired vets like myself would recollect that we got free gifts from the States in the late 1980s when imported breeders cause a round of coughing and respiratory complications in our local farms ( the SIV diagnosed then was written up in the Kajian Veterinar). So, my question, where's the fire?

We need to be pragmatic in our approach, as more questions will emerge and more answers are going to evolve from the little bits of puzzles that researchers, virologists, epidemeologists, etc are working on.