Down with wine flu

Swine flu scare is not really at it’s peak in Pune though people are still dying. May be people have given up on cumbersome precautions and have taken it as a fact of the life. The restaurants, movie theaters and malls are back to “business as usual”… Hardly anyone is wearing a mask. Considering the number of cases still being reported, I guess the virus is as potent as before…

Anyways… I had a real terrible cold for last 3-4 days… it wasn’t really flu but the usual cold that I get once in a while… I had a runny nose, mild headache, watery eyes and mild fever. On the third day, it was almost unbearable and I went to the GP. He checked me thoroughly and wrote down couple of medicines. I asked him, half jokingly, if I need to worry about the H1N1. He as if suddenly remembered something and immediately wrote down – “H1N1 screening”… I tried arguing that my symptoms weren’t really of the swine flu. He pulled out a notice from Pune municipal corporation which states that if an H1N1 case is diagnosed and the patient had already seen a doctor with flu like symptoms and if the doctor had failed to send the patient for screening, the doctor would implicated under IPC 319 ("IPC 319 - Hurt - Whoever causes bodily pain, disease or infirmity to any person is said to cause hurt"). He almost pleaded with me that I should go for the screening else he could be in trouble. I realized that the screening was for him, not for me :)

For my dear doctor's well being, I went to Dinanath Mangeshkar hospital. Luckily the crowd was sparse. Since we were at the “fever OPD”, my wife had covered her mouth. I, like a hero, did not cover myself. We were called in soon and the nurse asked if my wife was the patient!!
The doctor checked me thoroughly and sent me back home. She said I didn’t need swine flu test… I did not even need flu medicine, forget Tamiflu or equivalent… she gave me a course of anti-allergic tabs. One tablet and I was back on my feet.

So much for the swine flu! I think it was regular "wine flu" that I picked up over the long weekend. Too much of ice cold diet coke I guess and of course, some eh, ahem…
Also realized that I have an allergic condition (took anti-allergic tab for the first time in my life), thanks to swine flu era!