Editorial

Panic and caution are two different things. Caution comes from knowledge. Panic or extreme fear of the unknown is a form of helplessness. Our country, as every other nation, has known many epidemics. After every war, along with famine, the country had a succession of fevers, plague and cholera. Malaria, dengue and typhoid are also not unknown in our country. Tuberculosis is another danger.

The standard formula, used to contain any contagious disease, is isolation. The isolation wards in hospitals are more risky to doctors and other patients, because of the density of the sources of contamination. Along with special diets and total rest, isolation at home with prohibition of access to the patient for every person expect the one who is nursing was strictly enforced.

For small-pox and chicken-pox, a bunch of neem leaves will be hung on the gate outside the house to indicate that outsiders should avoid entering that house. Prayers also prevented panic and accelerated the cure.

How could they enforce such a strict discipline in villages, all voluntarily undertaken. People were told that unless these precautions were taken, persons coming from outside were supposed to contaminate the patient's house, thus making the disease virulent.

The instinct of self-survival was the secret of self-discipline. Now an appeal to civic sense is equally powerful to the educated. Let us see the advice of survivors. One of the survivors has prescribed paracetamol, isolation at home, plenty of liquid food and total rest. We can add to this list, doses of homeopathic medicines also.

Every new disease poses a challenge to our doctors. Sir Ronald Ross, the Nobel Prize winner for his work on Malaria was born in India and worked in Hyderabad.

How can one prevent the causes for a cytokane storm? This problem needs an immediate solution. Our scientists have to make a concerted and all-out attack how to solve this problem of H1N1. This will be a major contribution to the world's health even after H1N1 is wiped out.