Saudi Arabia is gearing up for the Haj season, where millions of Muslims will converge to Mecca to perform pilgrimage. At Crossroads Arabia, John Burgess writes:

With Haj due to start in just a couple of weeks, the Saudis are really bearing down on the issue of an outbreak of swine flu. Saudi Gazette reports on a conference of Saudi medical emergency experts to make sure that plans are locked down. The article notes that residents of Mecca and Medina will be among the first Saudis to be offered swine flu vaccines. This would help to establish a sort of fire-break in the case of a rapid spread of the disease.

In Turkey, the situation isn't as acute. Turkish blogger Erkan  admits that he was more afraid of previous pandemics:

I did not have a single moment of panic, I declare. I do not know why. I was more worried with crimean congo hemorrhagic fever or bird flu.
However, there is a low level panic feeling about swine flu now here in Istanbul, too. What is promising is that many ordinary people are in fact following authorities and try to take measures as much as they could. They are not fatalistic and they sure are not as indifferent as I am.

Meanwhile, at Memories Documented, Jordanian Qwaider shares a conspiracy theory:

A friend of mine, is one of those believing in every possible conspiracy that involves pharmaceutical companies. She would argue for hours on how vaccines are bad, and how the companies are deliberately taking actions to “reduce the human population” starting with the young, the weak and the ill.

He adds:

I think people are scared, and when people get scared they create demons, and feel afraid and threatened by them. When people are afraid many stick to the norms that they are comfortable with.

But diseases might require a person to go out of their regular routine to get better…

I'm not sure, but I believe in science… I really do, and I would take the words of doctors and pharmacist over the words of any conspiracy theorists no matter how hard they tried to convince me.

And The View from Fez, from Morocco, has the following update on H1N1:

Forty-two new H1N1 cases were confirmed on Thursday in the cities of Casablanca, Tanger, Marrakech, Fès, Benslimane, Oujda and Meknès, the health ministry said.

This takes the total of confirmed cases to 592, including 297 cases in schools, the ministry said in a statement.

All the patients are receiving home care, with medical check-ups, said the ministry, adding that none of the cases is complicated. The ministry made clear that no case of death was documented in the country.

Moving on to lighter observations, Jordanian Hareega writes:

I understand how terrible H1N1 can be, but if you smoke 3 packs of cigarettes and enjoy a ginormous seder of mansaf (Jordanian rice dish) everyday don't worry much about H1N1. Something else will get you faster.

In the same post, Hareega adds:

Seven Jordanians died of H1N1 so far. Ten times that number died while watching our football team lose to UAE 3-1. We need to set our priorities straight. Before vaccinating the nation send our football players to jail.

At first, the participation seemed impressive even before the start of the event. Thirty-five pubs in Gemmayzeh street announced their participation and the campaign sounded promising.

Maya Zankoul, a Lebanese blogger at “Maya's Amalgam“, a graphic designer and one of the campaign sponsors designed the poster and saw how it was all over the streets:

But talking is cheap, and when the day came, almost none of the pubs had a smoking-free night.
Maya wrote about how bad it was and said it was a joke:

It was quite a disappointment that we failed to achieve the relatively simple task of having dinner in a non-smoking environment – on a night consecrated to non-smoking! It showed a major lack of determination in the pubs’ policy, and showed that the reason they agreed to support the cause is probably for the free publicity they got.

Not only did the pubs not participate, but some actually posted “Smoking Friendly” signs on their doors. Samer Karam from “Blogging Beirut” was there and took the photo below. He added:

Times have changed in Beirut - Smoking Friendly Environment must be Explicit! Check photo

Liliane, a Lebanese blogger at “My Lebanon is being burned into ashes” and a non-smoking advocate was angry at the failure of the initiative and wrote:

Congratulations fellow Lebanese on one of your other lousy sense of humanity, logic and respect. Kudos! Ya3tikoun el 3afieh. I am glad I didn't go to Gemmayze because if I did and had found people smoking, I would've probably caused a scene.

[…]
Sign Petition to pass an electoral law to ban smoking in public places here.

Meanwhile, Syria has recently issued a decree that bans smoking in public places. Can we see this happening in Lebanon anytime soon? Or will it be a failure as well?

“We have also already sent an SOS to the international community because this is the one of the biggest outbreaks not just in the Philippines but in the world…”

This was the statement of Philippine Heath Secretary Francisco Duque III who announced a Leptospirosis outbreak in the flood-affected areas of the Philippines. More than 30 towns are still submerged in floodwaters one month after two strong typhoons hit the country’s capital and nearby provinces.

Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection affecting both humans and animals. It is acquired through direct contact with the urine of infected animals or by contact with a urine-contaminated environment such as floodwater, soil, and plants. The bacteria enter the body through broken skins, eyes, nose or mouth.

As of October 26, the Department of Health (DOH) has recorded a total of 2,158 cases including 167 deaths. Leptospirosis cases in Metro Manila have increased by as much as 174 percent since last year. Leptospirosis cases reached its peak from October 14 to 19, with hospitals reporting up to 350 cases a day.

Health authorities believe that more than one million people in the provinces south of Metro Manila are at risk of exposure to Leptospirosis, while 700,000 people are vulnerable in Metro Manila.

The government has drafted and distributed the “Interim Guidelines on the Prevention of Leptospirosis through the Use of Prophylaxis in Areas affected by Floods” to guide hospitals in areas vulnerable to Leptospirosis. Bloggers have started reposting relevant articles to inform readers about detecting symptoms of Leptospirosis.

Achieving Happiness warns that aside from Leptospirosis, other diseases are spreading in flooded communities and even in evacuation centers.

Imagine wading and swimming through polluted water. Then imagine your own children doing the same. It’s horrible. It’s dangerous. And now people are sick.

Besides leptospirosis, there’s cholera and the whole gamut of respiratory diseases because of the terrible living conditions in the evacuation centers. Skin diseases also proliferate.

The D Spot hits the delayed information drive of the government about the danger of Leptospirosis. The blogger also emphasizes that Leptospirosis is more dangerous than AH1N1

A large number of patients that consulted and continue to consult the hospitals’ emergency rooms have already developed grave complications—liver, kidney and lung failure. And what does this signify? The illness is already in its late stage.

These complications of Leptospirosis are mostly preventable had these patients been advised properly to take prophylaxis or seek early consult. The sad part is that we have not seen any massive information from DOH or the local government when clearly, Leptospirosis is more deadly than AH1N1, not until lately when the newspapers and television have picked up the stories.

Unlike AH1N1 which made too much noise and controversy, Leptospirosis is an illness which nobody is treating seriously, especially here in the Philippines, probably because it is an old case.

People have suffered enough, losing kith and kin, damage to properties, leaving the scars of Ondoy and Pepeng for the rest of their lives. They should not lose their lives now and those of their remaining loved ones just because of poor information campaign.

Surviving LUPUS observes that Leptospirosis cases went up because residents were forced to walk on flooded streets last month

During the wrath of these two typhoons everyone is focused on saving properties and lives that they have ignored the possibility of getting sick through flood waters. But what choice do you have at that moment, right? Flood water kept rising up, if you don’t move then you’ll get trap for days in your home with a short supply of potable water and food. So now as an aftermath a lot of people are in the hospital because of this disease.

The Paradoxic Ley Line blames the garbage of Manila for the Leptospirosis outbreak

After the flood, the plague came to wreak havoc to the people affected by Typhoon Ondoy. The plague came by the name of leptospirosis.

The back to back attack of the flood and leptospirosis is the end result of the waste mismanagement and blatant throwing of garbage to the streets and waterways. The flood is partly caused by the drainage system rendered useless by garbage. On the other hand, leptospirosis is caused by rats that live on garbage.

The sudden rise of leptospirosis cases and deaths only points to one thing and that is our continued wasteful lifestyle

Allena hopes the government will provide health insurance to flood victims

I really feel sorry about my fellowmen. For sure they do not have enough money for the medication and the hospital bill. I hope they have low cost health insurance to help them pay the medical bills. But it would be much better if the Philippine government would help them.

The Zen of Zero Expectations identifies measures to prevent the spread of Leptospirosis

As for leptospirosis, avoiding flooded areas is key.

Wear protective clothing, gloves and footwear if you have an occupational or recreational risk for exposure to contaminated soil or water. Cover wounds with waterproof dressings.

In general, practice good general sanitation to control the rat population. Remove brush and trash from areas of human habitation and don’t leave food out, especially in parks. Avoid water that may be contaminated with animal urine as this is the primary means of transmitting Leptospira to humans.

Most of us are just being reactive now, but it pays if we practise preventive measures in the days to come.

First, a child sex abuse scandal broke out on Oct. 13, involving, among others, three members of PM Yulia Tymoshenko's parliament faction (to learn more, read this article at Abdymok and this Kyiv Post editorial).

A week later, on Oct. 19, the presidential campaign officially kicked off, with the election scheduled to take place on Jan. 17, 2010. On Oct. 24, thousands of people from all over Ukraine were brought to Kyiv's Independence Square to cheer for PM Tymoshenko at a huge rally celebrating the official launch of her campaign (for photos, video and thoughts on the event, see this post at Ukrainiana).

On Oct. 26, Ukraine's interior minister Yuri Lutsenko announced that “a network of the extreme Islamic movement al-Takfir wal-Hijra, which is banned by many countries in the world, is spreading in the Crimean territory of Ukraine,” and its members were planning to kill Mustafa Jemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatars.

Finally, on Oct. 30, after a few days of alarming reports on an outbreak of respiratory illness in western Ukraine, the first swine flu-related death was confirmed, and PM Tymoshenko ordered Ukraine's schools closed and public gatherings - including election campaign rallies - banned for at least three weeks; restrictions on non-urgent travel inside Ukraine may also be imposed. According to WSJ.com, Ukraine's president Victor Yushchenko canceled his upcoming campaign rally “where he had been due to announce his election agenda, telling journalists that 11 people had died of H1N1, contradicting a Health Ministry report of only one fatality. An aide and a ministry official said Mr. Yushchenko may have made a mistake.”

Below is what Anglophone bloggers are writing about this latest development - the flu outbreak.

Ukrainiana:

At least 61 people are in critical condition. H1N1 has been officially confirmed in seven cases. Schools and kindergartens in nine oblasts have been closed: Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Zakarpattya, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Volyn, Khmelnytsk and Vinnytsya.

“Ukraine has entered a flu epidemic, of the so-called California (swine) type. As of October 29, we have 951 people hospitalized. Unfortunately, we have to note 30 fatalities,” Minister of Healthсare Vasyl Knyazevych said at a briefing Friday.

More recent reports bring the death toll to 37. […]

MoldovAnn:

The H1N1 virus has finally arrived in Ukraine, and along with it a big ole dose of overreaction and panic. Reports vary on the number of infected and number of deaths attributable to swine flu, but there seems to be clear consensus that those who have died waited too long to seek medical attention. Then again, knowing the medical care available in regional towns and villages, it’s hard to imagine how going to the clinic or hospital would have really helped many of them - sad to say.

Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, in an attempt to scare the living bejeezes out of people, oops, I mean protect the population, has extended the autumn school break for another 3 weeks and advised people to avoid public gatherings. Once the announcement hit the wires this afternoon, parents started panicking - the flu immediately forgotten as they tried to figure out what the hell to do about childcare for another 3 weeks. Ex-pats were openly hoping the “quarantine” wouldn’t affect the international schools.

I saw three people wearing masks today, and another half-dozen covering their noses and mouths with scarves. Igor went to several pharmacies to buy echinacea and flu medicine, but no luck. Every place around us was sold out of both. So he bought a dozen lemons and insisted I drink the “family recipe” for good health - a potent concoction of vodka, lemon juice and honey. […]

Foreign Notes:

LEvko is astonished at the panic in Ukraine and the way over-the-top reaction from the government and politicians over the swine flu epidemic which has hit the country. There is even talk of the president establishing a state of emergency and possibly postponing the presidential elections.

[…]

Ukrainian politicians would do better to take a good look at Ukraine's appalling life expectancy figures. Major causes of premature deaths in the country are the smoking of cigarettes and excessive alcohol consumption. A ban on advertising these products and restricting their availability would help save countless lives, but it won't happen because there's too much money being to made from their sale. Much easier to show “decisive leadership” and determined action over the flu epidemic, and scare the the population out of its wits - no doubt increasing the sales of cure-all vodka even more…

p.s. I ‘phoned the official goverment swine flu information hot-line today…all I heard was crackling..

Windows to Russia!:

[…] Think maybe this has to do more with control of people at election time than the flu? […]

Twitter user Victor Kotusenko/roxolanus:

ok, now we are getting this h1n1, it's coming. oxoline ointment in my nose every day, washing my hands often, what else? I guess sleep more)

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mild panic in Kyiv today as h1n1 cases officially confirmed

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I would call it concern rather than panic in Ukraine, although people are scared by media. but medical services seem to react. we'll c […]