Doaa El-Bey gauges the fear introduced by swine flu and the concerns fuelled by Netanyahu's racist policy address Swine flu frightened more people than the dreaded high school exams Exams of the thanaweya amma, or high school certificate, started this week, however, most front pages focussed on the fear caused by the H1N1 virus, most notably the concerns of students and their parents. The independent daily Nahdet Masr wrote 'Thanaweya amma exams held under the protection of police because of the swine flu scare'. The weekly Akhbar Al-Yom wrote 'Thanaweya amma under medical supervision' and the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom headlined 'Thanaweya amma behind masks'. The appearance of more cases of swine flu in Egypt and the decision by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to raise the state of alert to the sixth and last level heightened fear if not outright terror of the disease and made writers question the incumbency of stopping public transportation all together. Other writers looked at the measures taken in hospitals and health centres responsible for treating afflicted patients. The daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the Wafd Party, shed light on the laxity prevailing in Abbasiya Hospital. The newspaper wrote that infected people are allowed to wander freely about in the hospital, order food from restaurants outside the hospital and noted that other patients were not being given protective masks. In Al-Wafd Mustafa Shafiq wrote that the virus entered Egypt in spite of all the protective measures taken in Egyptian ports. He questioned whether we exaggerated our trust in these measures and the quarantine in our airports. "Despite all the precautionary measures, the virus entered via Cairo Airport which is the major airport and which is supposed to enjoy the strictest preventive measures. Either we overestimated the effectiveness of the scanning machines or the dreadful virus is more intelligent than all the measures we took." However, Shafiq expressed cautious optimism that current advances in medicine would help control the disease and spare the world of a catastrophe like that of 1918 when the Spanish Flu took the lives of some 100 million people. Ahmed Abul-Maati wrote that the government would be mistaken if it did not respond to the wave of public horror from swine flu or did not respond properly to rumours that Egypt would face a catastrophe if the disease spread. He added that a minister or the prime minister should officially declare that closing the underground metro or postponing the exams are indeed rumours. Abul-Maati warned about exaggerating the effects of the virus as some estimates say it could kill some 18 million Egyptians mainly in densely populated areas. He ruled out that the appearance of a number of cases in Egypt should lead to taking measure like closing schools and universities. In other countries stricken by diseases, life goes on; students go to school and employees to their work. "However ferocious swine flu is, it is not more dangerous than road accidents that take the life of tens of thousands, or ferries which sink and trains that catch fire, all killing thousands more," Abul-Maati wrote in Al-Arabi, the mouthpiece of the democratic Nasserist Party. Nahdet Masr asked the public whether the government should close down the underground metro, trains and ports to control the spread of swine flu. Most people responded positively and called on the government to force passengers to wear masks. Suleiman Gouda wrote that the real problem was the mobilisation that involved everybody in Egypt without exception when the virus first appeared in Mexico. Initially, after nothing apparently happened in Egypt, the public let down their collective guard. Meanwhile, there was talk that the swine flu virus is a mere international game played in the interests of the global drug companies who stand to reap millions of pounds when all governments buy the famous Tamiflu drug. But given that the assumption was unfounded, it soon lost credence. When the virus finally appeared in Egypt, people were rather indifferent and became less cautious. "It is the duty of the state to broaden awareness among people of the danger of the disease and the repercussions of it spreading -- God forbid," Gouda wrote in Akhbar Al-Yom. Al-Masry Al-Yom wrote: "Thanaweya amma students raised the slogan 'the mask is the solution'". Khairi Ramadan wrote in the same newspaper that "we are in danger because people spend more time in the streets and in transportation than they do in their homes." The weekly magazine Rose El-Youssef wrote about the contradiction between the stand of the WHO which sounded the highest alarm bells and the Egyptian government which said that it would not carry out its national plan of action until the disease spread inside a whole village because that would mean that the disease has become a pandemic. Meanwhile, the state said it will start an awareness campaign which should include placing printed instructions about symptoms and ways of protection in all modes of transport, besides emphasising the importance of cleanliness, good ventilation and staying away from crowded places like places of worship, cinemas and coffee shops. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram wrote that without any doubt the disease is dangerous, but we should not panic. However, that does not mean that we stand still without taking any serious, rational measures. The edit stated a number of facts needed to fight the disease, the first being that prevention is better than cure. Thus, we should take all the necessary measures like washing our hands and staying away from crowded areas. Second, the government on its own would not be able to fight the disease without the help of its citizens. Third, the media are expected to play an important role in this difficult time by spreading more awareness among the people. The editorial concluded by requesting the government to read out a report released a few days ago by the Institution for Animal Services which stated that "the campaign waged three years ago against bird flu contributed in spreading the disease rather than containing it. Now, the government has to deal with the danger of both bird and swine flu.
