Oh Swine.

As widespread as the infamous H1N1 (swine) flu virus is in many countries around the world, I never really realized how serious it is until I arrived in Asia. Even with the men in bio-hazardous suites and temperature guns at the airport in China, I never even entertained the idea that one day I might be a victim of it. This belief was changed last week when four people out of the eight or nine people I usually hang out with suddenly dropped off the face of the earth in one night. I only learned later that their disappearances were due to the swine flu virus. As I learned later, cases of swine flu were appearing among the summer school students. We were having confirmed cases of it almost daily and all of them were in the building I live in. As it turns out, my sick friends either have roommates or neighbors who have swine flu. Not surprisingly, they also started to develop symptoms of swine flu. It is a scary story to tell in retrospect because we all traveled to Macau together before their symptoms started to develop and it is very possible that I came in close contact with the virus at one point or another. Luckily for me and most of my friends, we did not get swine flu. As of today, there have been 7 confirmed and 18 unconfirmed cases of swine flu. The school has taken many precautionary measures, such as a sign-in system for all residents (a joke), mandatory temperature check before classes, and frees Tamiflu, which treats and prevents swine flu. To prevent the virus from further spreading, they actually canceled all classes for next week and will be broadcasting the lectures over the web instead. I feel bad for my friends who have the virus since they are forced to stay in their room and watch as the treasured days of summer school pass them by. Fortunately for them, Tamiflu makes the virus no longer contagious after two days, which would allow them to be out and about.