Asian Media Playing the Waiting Game on H1N1 Flu?

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, May 1(AMF) - While the international media have been gone quite 'feverish' in their coverage of human swine flu, the media in this region appears to have remained relatively calm.

   Owing perhaps to the fact that no case of human swine flu has been reported in Asia so far or because the region has seen similar cases in recent years with the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian flu, the media's 'composure' seems to be getting the needed information across in general.  

   "Coverage (about the flu) is wide, globally and regionally. The tone is still on the alertness, caution, preparedness, surveillance with extra measures being taken at the airports and other points of entry. Reporting is generic and repetitive mostly among news agencies," says Roopa Rakshit, communications and information manager of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre in Thailand.

   For Nalaka Gunawardene, director of Sri Lanka's TVE Asia-Pacific, this new outbreak is forcing the media to "quickly realign their readiness to cover this story".

   "There has been some coverage bordering on panic but on the whole, the coverage I've seen has been informed, balanced and wide ranging. Let's hope it stays that way," Gunawardene told the AMF.

   This seemingly calm tone, thus, is evident upon a quick check of major newspapers in the region that carried the swine flu story. Apart from updates of latest casualties and incidents on the outbreak, media organisations have also incorporated practical tips on how to prevent the spread of the virus, which is spread from human to human.

   The public has also been assured by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local governments, through the media, that the authorities are prepared to confront a pandemic if necessary.

H1N1 VIRUS, NOT SWINE FLU

   The swine flu, or 'Mexican flu' or 'novel flu' as some media institutions have begun calling it, was detected in early April in Mexico. The H1N1 virus is said to be a "reassortment of four strains of influenza A virus". Since then, nine people have died of the H1N1 (all from Mexico), including a baby in the United States. As of May 1, 11 countries have officially reported 331 cases of H1N1 infection. On Apr. 30, the WHO raised the alert level to five, indicating a human-to-human transmission that could signal a pandemic.

   This week, WHO also announced that it would stop using the term ‘swine flu’ because it was misleading and leading to cases like Egypt slaughtering pigs and several countries banning pork imports, when these do not help the situation any. In truth, the human ‘swine flu’ is not linked to pigs and cannot be spread by eating or touching pork or pigs. The ‘swine’ in the term ‘swine flu’ refers to the fact it is influenza caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in pigs.

  The outbreak has put the media, those in the West in particular, into a frenzy. In his article for the 'Washington Post' on Apr. 27, journalist Howard Kurtz called the ensuing media coverage in the United States with at least 40 confirmed swine flu cases and one death, as having reached "fever pitch", with the "sheer volume of media attention" suggesting a "full-blown crisis".

   Some are criticising media's knee-jerk reaction to the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza A virus.

SPREADING FEARS

   "The mass media of so-called objective journalism played a major role in the latest declaration of severe flu by exaggerating the threat and peddling fear among a susceptible and already panicking public," wrote Patrick Cusick of the 'Daily Planet Media', noting the irony of the media's lack of vigilance in the threat of climate change.

   Priscilla Wald, who wrote the 2008 book 'Contagious' that examined how mainstream media tell the stories of communicable disease outbreaks, in an interview on Apr. 28 said that news media coverage of a disease outbreak could reach a saturation point that could "create the effect of an impending apocalypse".

  "It reinforces a sense of hopelessness and dependence on medical experts. The threat of a pandemic should not inspire a paralysis but should be a call to action," she said. For her, a pandemic is merely a symptom, or a reminder, of more serious problems, such as access to health care, which is a "basic human right and a priority".

   Acknowledging that the WHO and the Centres for Disease Control in the United States as leading sources of "authentic preventive advice", Gunawardene says that the media are capable of disseminating these information "faster than the flu virus". Of course, he added, effective and credible communication always translates to "friendly, non-technical language".

   Some quarters, however, say that it is still too early in the game to judge whether the media are doing their job properly in informing the public about the H1N1 (influenza A) virus.

   "Media is just informing what has happened so far, how it can spread and what precautions one should take," said Milind Khandekar, managing editor of ‘Star News’ in the Indian city of Mumbai, adding that the story is "still not such a big story in India".

   "There is obviously concern about the flu, but I won't call it a panic as was the case during the avian flu some time ago," said Khandekar.

   Shima Roy, communications officer of WHO Regional Office for South-east  Asia's Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response, agrees and says that the organisation is still "dealing with a gamut of issues, needing to update and keep pace with this evolving situation".

   Gunawardene is hopeful that experts would continue to present information in a friendly, easy-to-understand way with the help of media. "I hope experts don't start bickering in the media about the finer points of epidemiology, which can confuse non-specialists and stall or freeze preventive action," he said.

   Sensational or not, the media in the past few weeks of the outbreak have been a constant presence. In the words of New Zealand's ‘One News’ political editor Guyon Espiner in his Apr. 28 online column on the media's penchant for hype, "When there's a health scare, you can't say you weren't warned." (END/AMF/LLC/JS/300409)