Alert Alert!!

It's official: Swine Flu mania has gripped Hyderabad.  True, the first reported case of swine flu in India was in Andhra Pradesh earlier this summer.  But thankfully, no reported deaths in the state yet (although there was a controversial death earlier this summer, where the Telugu press wrote in shockingly huge red blinking letters across the screen: "swine flu death reported!!"...only to be rescinded the next day).

Everywhere I looked this summer, people were wearing surgical masks.  Drugstores reportedly sold out of them, so some enterprising street vendors came into the picture.  When I saw children jumping up and down, begging their parents with huge smiles to buy masks as though these masks were ice cream, I couldn't help but think of "Tipping Point" and the next big craze.  (see pictures above!!)

Of course, this isn't to belittle swine flu (and indeed, pregnant women appear to be particularly suceptible -- prompting many maternity hospitals around Hyderabad to rework their visitors' policy)... but it's just interesting that with all the public health issues plaguing the state (HIV/AIDS, for one, has reached WHO-defined pandemic levels here), the focus is on swine flu. 

You can't blame the media, for the public seems to be eating it up.  It just makes me wonder how media and "hype" can be used to draw wider attention to some of the more silent but deadly issues here.