Tag Africa

Out of proportion

Dr John Crip­pen:

We met at lunch­time [to talk] of flu. There have been deaths in Mex­ico. There has been one in the US. Our Indian part­ner said: “There were 2,000 deaths, mainly chil­dren in Africa and Asia, yesterday.”

Our med­ical stu­dent looked shocked: “I didn’t know swine flu had reached that part of the world.” “It hasn’t,” said our part­ner. “I’m talk­ing of deaths from mal­aria. But that isn’t news, is it?”

We were silent for a while. Time to get things in proportion.