The real pandemics

IN a week or so, more than 170 people have died as a result of the swine flu outbreak – leading to a global panic about its implications.

During that same time, approximately 20,000 people have died of malaria, mainly children in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the wake of phantom scares about bird flu and SARS in recent years – both of which amounted to nothing – should we not focus on the real pandemics going on in our world on a daily basis?