Countless letters have appeared in Malaysiakini about H1N1 deaths among Malaysians. From day one, we were slow to put in place strategic prevention and control measures.

Some of the reasons why we are seeing such a drastic increase in the number of people coming down with the H1N1 virus are:

1 When the outbreak was officially declared in Mexico - we were not swift enough to institute screening at our airports or borders.

2 When the flu hit the Americans we were still slow to put in place screening for passengers coming from America or Australia.

3 When the scanners were finally installed at the airports there were so many loopholes - and many drifted past the screening net into the community.

4 It took several weeks after an outbreak in Thailand before scanners were installed at the entry points at the boarders, by which time hundreds had crossed over unscreened into the country.

5 The failure to ban citizens traveling to H1NI-infected countries such as Australia, America, Thailand, and the Philippines further contributed to the present alarming scenario.

Many who booked cheap MATTA Fair air tickets ended up holidaying in Australia and the other H1N1 infected countries. In fact, many were in these countries during the peak of the infection.

I understand many took anti-flu tablets which could have masked the symptoms temporarily, undetected by the airport scanner. Some could have taken the anti-flu tablets to suppress the fever to escape the compulsory quarantine.

6 The ultimate reason for the sudden surge of the infection, I think, is the closing of schools and colleges which invariably aided in the spread of the disease throughout the country.

When several students from certain schools and residential colleges were detected with the bug the authorities immediately closed down the schools and colleges, invariably letting loose thousands of students who may had been harbouring or incubating the virus.

These students were probably not advised of the precautions to take while they were /are back home. What transpired is that many of these students were actually traveling all over the country and those who were harbouring the virus were actually spreading the disease.

The rest is history - hospitals and clinics were not prepared for the sudden surge in flu patients, confusing statements from politicians made matters worse, flu medication restricted to a select few and the list goes on and on.

Under these circumstances the prognosis is grave. However, we can save the situation and save thousands of lives if we follow what the Mexicans did. Declare a national health emergency, ban all public gatherings etc, for a few days, and get cracking on the treatment and control measures.

The public should play their civic role by cooperating with the health authorities to stop this bug from spreading further by taking all the necessary precautions. The public cannot rely completely on the health authorities with an outbreak of this nature.

Mexico overcame H1N1 health threat purely by its superb public cooperation and support. It is time for Malaysians to drop their tools and get united like the Mexicans to stop this deadly viral attack.

The death toll is rising daily and one can already sense the sullen atmosphere in the parts of the country.