Priorities . . .

Since the beginning of 2015, we're in the midst of a flu epidemic. Newspapers have gone head over heels to report from every nook and corner of the country. There is quite a lot of panic about the situation in the country. 

I found it quite amusing to have a young man come to our outpatient wearing a surgical mask. He had been told at his college that the surgical mask will prevent swine flu infection. He also claimed that authorities in his college had distributed about 2000 masks to students and teachers.

As of today, there have been 743 deaths caused by Swine Flu since January 1, 2015. 

I thought of calculating the number of deaths by other major causes (mainly preventable) in our country during the same period. The calculations are based on figures provided from previous year data. There should not be a more than 5% decrease from those numbers.

Cause of Death
Tuberculosis	76849
Road Traffic Accidents	18360
Malaria	27945 *
Childhood Diarrhoea  (11m and less)	13973
Childhood Pneumonia  (5 years and less	44433
Maternal deaths	6986

* This number would be certainly much less than this as it is not malaria season.

Yes, you read it right. If the news sources are to be believed, almost 10 times the number of swine flu deaths have been accounted by maternal deaths during the last 50 days. And nobody of us even noticed. 

I can only hope that the sources of my information about deaths every year in the country is wrong.

I hope we can get our priorities right . . .