Swine flu in schools: A cruel irony

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Swine flu has found the perfect breeding ground in Pune. What better place for the virus to spread than in our schools... where we teach our children to sit together, study together, play together and most importantly share their belongings with each other.

Finding a weakness in our strength, this disease has affected more than 80 students in Pune and more than 100 children in Maharashtra.

A health official at the Pune Municipal Corporation once explained to me how it was becoming increasingly difficult to stop the virus from spreading to other schools. He told me how an infected child from one school, unaware of his condition, had spent an entire afternoon frolicking in the rain with his friend from another school. Both had shared the same umbrella.

As we journalists kept an eye on the rising numbers in Pune, on August 3, the numbers suddenly assumed a name. 14-year-old Reeda Shaikh died due to acute respiratory complications brought about by swine flu.

For a media circle that had become accustomed to witnessing the recovery of affected patients, the news that one hadn't made it paralyzed us with shock.

In the midst of allegations and counter allegations, in the course of breaking news and interviews, the grieving family invited two of us into their home. The devastated mother wailed as Reeda's last few hours haunted her.

The grandmother remembered how the child kept begging for the dreadful cough to leave her body. The aunt kept wishing she could have bought the teenager a Shahid Kapur poster for her room. But tears were fought back. The family knew their suffering had just begun.

That swine flu could kill even on Indian soil has rendered a tremendous jolt to the state machinery. A senior doctor in the administration knows his team is in the line of fire. The doctor himself is under great pressure, looking thinner than when I last met him 3 days earlier.

But the state government trusts his team. Sources say these very officials had worked towards curtailing the spread of bird flu in the state two years ago. Now the state is hoping for a repeat show.

Meanwhile, there is our breed, that of journalists. We have not stopped interacting with people, suspected cases or otherwise. Disposable masks and tiny bottles of Dettol are our constant companions. As we apply our minds to taking this news forward, the shadows of fear snigger in the backdrop. After all, we are human too.