H1N1.
What a scary sounding foreign name. No one knew what it was capable of doing just two months ago. Then, if I had to interview a person who had just recovered from the virus, I would probably have gone in trepidation after making sure I was fully-clothed in protective gear and muttering a silent prayer in the process.
Yes, all this even though he might have recovered. What a difference two months has made, after health authorities have found that the virus is not all as serious as they once thought.
On Friday, I had to speak to a teenage boy who had just hours earlier been declared free from the bug. Yet, I didn't even feel an ounce of fear. In fact, I was quite surprised at the over-reaction of people to the disease or to those who have contracted it.
He was recounting his experience at the hospital where people were avoiding him like the plague just because he was wearing a mask. The sixteen-year-old boy thought it was silly. So did I. What struck me about him though, was not the fact that he was another number adding up to the tally of H1N1 cases in Singapore. But, how he remained bubbly throughout the one-hour interview.
Not once was he fazed by the reaction he might be getting when he returns to school on Monday. On the contrary, his friends have been eagerly waiting for him to go out with them, he says. The numerous text messages he was getting while the interview was going on was probably proof of his popularity and that it was no big deal among his teenage friends.
One girl (whom he vehemently denies) is his girlfriend, had even gone to the hospital he was staying in to pass him a teddy bear - albeit through a nurse. When another friend he had not spoken to in ages called while I was there, he almost proudly exclaimed that he recently had H1N1. With a television crew, photographer and journalists milling around him, perhaps it might be almost understandable to hear that tinge of pride in his voice.
His mother, on the other hand, was slightly alarmed that he'd consented to an interview with the media. Her worry, like most Singaporeans': Would people over-react? While the teenager almost sprinted out the front door, his mother was shouting after him to avoid crowded places and to return back home early. Her worry is that he might catch it again - or worse, pass it on to others. The fact that he had recovered did only so much to ease her worries.
For this Republic Polytechnic student, his bubbly personality probably stopped him from being alienated. But there are probably many other quieter people being shunned right now, from people who still don't know what the disease is and what harm it could bring their way. So, the typical Singaporean mentality kicks in: Better to be kiasu and stay away.
Perhaps, the older generation or even those who vividly remember SARS are still not quite convinced that H1N1 might pose no more danger than the seasonal flu. It didn't help that when not much was known of the virus, it appeared as deadly as SARS. With the World Health Organisation throwing words like pandemic, it is no wonder that people are still afraid, but this will probably change now that health authorities are likening it to the seasonal flu.
Having said that, the most important thing, which Singaporeans should already be practising is good hygiene. Now is the time to remind oneself to dispose one's tissues properly and not spit randomly on pavements.
Read Joanne Lee's rather opposite germophobe take on the H1N1 spread here.
Read also Cases cross 1,000 mark here.