From Swine Flu to Personal Hygiene

Recently the whole world has been plunged into a panic because of a potential pandemic---the widespread swine flu. The World Health Organization has raised its alert level to Phase 5, the second-highest, and Singapore has moved into “orange” mode in its five-colour alert system. All of these signs indicate that a pandemic may become imminent. The Health Minister of Singapore asserted that Singapore, which is still clear of the suspected cases, should do its utmost to contain the virus. A week of home quarantine will be implemented for those who have returned from Mexico recently, which is the most drastic action. Besides, the government also advocates that a high level of personal hygiene is the best way to keep oneself from the virus.
For keeping good personal hygiene, one needs to always remember that wash hands frequently. It is an effective way to use soap and water to avoid the virus spreading from your hands to your face or mouth. Everyone use his own hands hundreds of times one day, so we easily overlook the cleanliness of our hands. In addition, we should wear a face mask when necessary. It can cover your nose and mouth from a potential risk of transmission. Besides, we should also pay attention to the cleanliness of our clothes. If someone coughs or sneezes beside you without using a tissue to cover his nose or mouth, you may caught a lot of tiny drops of discharge in your clothes. Such a tiny drop of liquid may contain a lot of viruses if the person is infected with the disease. Considering this, we also need to reduce the number of outdoor activities, especially those with lot of people together in public.
Whenever an epidemic spreads all around a large area or around the whole world, personal hygiene is always considered as a useful way to avoid it. Besides, personal hygiene is always important to one’s health. For swine flu, pending the development of a vaccine, there are many ways to ensure that the virus cannot spread. As normal people, we can keep good personal hygiene as a contribution to combating the swine flu.