I wanted to write about this for quite sometime but found ignition in this article of Soutik Biswas. He talks about the attention swine flu is receiving these days in the Indian media. It is very scary to watch or read media reports about this 'epidemic'. Soutik Biswas also mentions the case of 1145 people infected of Japanese Encephalitis in Uttar Pradesh of which about 300 succumbed to this dreaded disease. Do you remember the attention given to this disease? No because as Soutik puts it "Apart from its name, there was nothing remotely global about this outbreak".
In a way it is good that media is making people aware of this disease but it is more terrifying rather than informative. An image in the same article shows masked girls sweating out in a gym. This is ludicrous if you ask any physio about it. One should be careful but not be intimidated by this disease. And why is it that media never gives same attention to other diseases which claim a lot more lives every year. Malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis require much more attention than swine flu. Are we in an age where even ailments are glamorized?
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The reason I think for so much hype being given to swine flu is its highly contagious nature. It really claimed our attention. But you are right in saying that rather being informative, media has been intimidating. I cud see people on station wearing masks these days.
Good that u mentioned abt the encephalitis. Things like these go unnoticed many a times. It cud be because it might be less contagious. And it cud also be because unlike the swine flu which has affected the society's elite, this is the disease of the Indian poor and we really don't worry how many of them live or how many of them die.
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