At last the government has woken up to the threat of swine flu and announced yesterday that travellers from certain countries like Mexico, USA, UK and others will be checked for illness. I think that the disease has been here since the end of March and India was probably the first country it travelled to from Mexico. For about a month I have been seeing at least five cases of fever everyday. Our clinic is small so this means that physicians with larger practices must be seeing at least 10 cases a day. So what is strange about fever? Firstly this is not the season for viral fever. Secondly patients have high fever upto 105 F with slight dry cough and headache. Not one has a cold with runny nose as one would expect in normal flu. Most children also have vomiting and a few have tummy ache. This hill town has a thriving industry of conversion and christians from all parts of the world come here for the thrill of converting children from poor Hindu families. We have people from the US, UK, Australia, Brazil and many other countries combining the pleasures of tourism with reserving a spot in paradise by redeeming as many Hindu heathens as they can. I suspect that one of them also brought a present of the swine flu virus for us. With everyone busy with the election circus who has the time to deal with unimportant pubic health issues? I suppose I might as well enjoy my increased income while I can.