India - Shocked by Swine Flu's Rapid Spread

by Alanna Shaikh · 2009-08-13 00:18:00 UTC
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(photo credit: jpereira_net)

Editor's Note -  commenter Patrick Mayne knows more about India than I do, so I am reprinting his comment as a post.

Pune, the city I used to work in (about 4 hours from Mumbai by car, and the size of Atlanta, though generally fairly unknown), has the highest incidence (rate?) of death from A(H1N1) in the country.  It (pretty much the entire city--theaters, schools, whatever) has been closed for the last few days, and is apparently going to stay closed for the next week.  People I've talked to aren't going out.

I think everyone's just shocked by how quickly this happened there.  They went from 0 deaths just over a week ago to now something like 10 (a, uh, infinity-fold increase?).  I think Mumbai is shocked by what's happening, and is extremely well reported, just a few hours away.  Most people I knew from either city went back and forth pretty frequently for family and/or work, and a lot of people even commute daily (though I think that's completely insane).  Pune seems to be in full-scale panic mode (though the government seems to be handling this remarkably well in terms of providing orderly and sane access to testing and treatment), and I can't imagine that that hasn't made people in Mumbai flip out.

The AP today reported the releases of a couple of bollywood movies are being delayed in these markets (as well as Navi Mumbai, which is the New Jersey to Mumbai's New York, and Thane, which I guess would be Connecticut in this analogy?), but honestly, unless they've shut down all markets, all public transportation (even the informal kind) and somehow solved the issue of overcrowding overnight, this really isn't going to make any difference, unfortunately.  At least they seem to be doing the right thing with testing, treatment and education (which is the best anyone can do, right?).

Also, I think the closure was mandated by the Maharashtra state government, rather than the national govt, FWIW.  I can't see much that New Delhi (rather than state, district, taluka and municipal governments) has done that's been entirely useful.

Alanna Shaikh
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