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Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim has suggested that both the “swine flu” and Influenza A(H1N1) terminologies be used by the media in reporting the disease.
This was a better and more accurate way of reporting the pandemic to the public, he said. He added that many international media organisations such as the British Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of America and Australian Broadcasting Corporation as well as search engines like Google and Yahoo were using the term swine flu.
“As a responsible ministry, we should use both terminologies when explaining the issue.
“We in the ministry will continue to use the easy-to-understand term. We will use the A(H1N1) terminology but for subsequent mentions, we will proceed with the term ‘swine flu’,” he told reporters after the launching of the “1Malaysia” logo by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak here.
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The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic Thursday; the first global flu epidemic in 41 years, as infections in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and elsewhere climbed to nearly 30,000 cases.
The long-awaited pandemic announcement is scientific confirmation that a new flu virus has emerged and is quickly circling the globe. WHO will now ask drugmakers to speed up production of a swine flu vaccine, which it said would available after September. The declaration will also prompt governments to devote more money toward efforts to contain the virus.
WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the announcement Thursday after the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts. Chan said she was moving to phase 6; the agency’s highest alert level, which means a pandemic, or global epidemic, is under way.
“The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century,” Chan told reporters. “The virus is now unstoppable.”
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The number of confirmed Influenza A (HIN1) cases in Malaysia now has risen to five, with the latest two cases involving two German nationals, aged 30 and 32, who are holidaying in Southeast Asia.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, speaking to reporters in Putrajaya, said the duo arrived in the country on Air Asia flight AK702 from Singapore at 1.55pm Wednesday.
Prior to coming to Malaysia, he said, they had arrived in Singapore from Germany on Monday on Singapore Airlines flight SQ45.
“Both of them experienced fever while in Kuala Lumpur and sought treatment at the Gleneagles Hospital and were subsequently referred to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital at 1.40am today.
“They were confirmed to have contracted Influenza A (H1N1) at 3pm by the Institute of Medical Research (IMR),” he said.
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than one billion people are experiencing weight problems worldwide, and if left to continue the number of obese people may rise to 1.5 billion by 2015.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Medical Faculty dean and UKM Medical Centre (UKMMC) director, Prof Datuk Dr Lokman Saim, said in the Second National Health and Morbidity Survey 1996 it was found that 16.6 per cent of adults were overweight and 4.4 per cent were obese.
“This means that one of every five adults is overweight and this is worrying because it is linked to chronic cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.
“Prevention and treatment need to be done at an early stage by eating a balanced diet and practising healthy lifestyle,” said Dr Lokman when launching the UKMMC-level Obesity Awareness Programme at the UKMMC main lobby, here, Wednesday.
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Malaysia confirmed its second case of swine flu Saturday, a woman who recently returned from the United States.
Ramlee Rahmat, the Health Ministry deputy director-general, said the woman had returned to Malaysia from the United States on Wednesday and was hospitalized Friday in northern Penang state.
Tests confirmed early Saturday that she was infected with the H1N1 virus, but he said there were no fears that the disease was spreading. The woman was a friend of a 21-year-old man who was also infected with the virus and they were both on the same flight, he said.
“They happened to be together. That’s how they got it,” he told the Associated Press. “Both of them are in stable condition. The situation is under control.”
Globally, 73 people have died of the new strain of influenza, 66 of them in Mexico, where the virus originated. Five deaths have been reported in the U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica.
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Director-general of Health Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said Malaysia’s first influenza A(H1N1) case involved a 21-year-old male student who returned from the United States two days ago and started having fever, sore throat and body aches yesterday, and was admitted to Sungai Buloh Hospital at 6.45pm the same day.
“He has been given anti-viral treatment and is in stable condition,” Dr Mohd Ismail said in a statement today.
Following the confirmation of the first influenza A(H1N1) case in Malaysia, all passengers on Malaysia Airlines flight MH091 from Newark, United States which arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday (May 13), are advised to contact the Health Ministry.
Director-general of Health Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said they should call the ministry at 03-88810200 or 03-88810300 for follow-up action.
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Men who were grossly overweight at the age of 18 had nearly 50 percent less chance of being married by their 30s and 40s, an international conference on obesity heard in Amsterdam on Thursday.
The findings, which held true regardless of the men’s intellectual performance or socio-economic position, could suggest that women rank a man’s appearance higher than other traits when choosing a partner.
“Yes, that may be one explanation,” researcher Malin Kark of the Swedish Karolinska Institutet medical university, told AFP on the sidelines of the four-day gathering hosted by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.
Kark’s study was conducted among more than 500,000 Swedish men born between 1951 and 1961.
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The World Health Organisation chief warned Monday that swine flu could return with a vengeance despite Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon insisting his country has contained the epidemic.
WHO chief Margaret Chan said that a second wave of the virus “would be the biggest of all outbreaks the world has faced in the 21st century”, puncturing optimism emanating from the outbreak’s epicentre .
Diplomatic damage from the epidemic also reverberated with China denying it had discriminated against Mexican nationals after dozens were placed under quarantine over the weekend despite showing no signs of the flu.
Twenty-five people have died from swine flu, according to the WHO, all but one of them in Mexico. Twenty-one countries have confirmed cases of the virus which has affected around 900 people.
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The World Health Organisation on Wednesday raised its flu alert to phase five out of six, WHO chief Margaret Chan said, signalling that a pandemic was “imminent” following the swine flu outbreak.
“I have decided to raise the influenza pandemic alert from phase four to phase five,” the WHO director general announced after an emergency meeting of the UN health agency’s pandemic experts.
“This is a signal to governments, ministries of health… to the pharmaceutical industry, that certain actions now should be undertaken with increased urgency,” she told journalists.
“All countries should immediately now activate their pandemic preparedness plans,” she added.
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