• 
• 
• 

We planned to meet some friends that evening so I proceeded to make phone calls. Within two hours, however, I had to call everyone again to cancel. After four hours, all the joints in my body, big or small, were screaming. By nightfall all I could do was lie down on a sofa as extreme muscle fatigue made every little movement painful. My fever was so high; no one needed to touch me to know it.

The swine flu alert protocol called for a two-day wait, so I waited. The next day all the symptoms peaked and I was reduced to a sack of immobile, aching muscles, breathing a dragon's breath. It was just over 24 hours since the fever struck, and I took heart from the fact that - apart from the speedy transformation from a coughing puppy into a really sick dog - many people I knew were suffering from common flu during the same period. So, very anxiously, I decided to take a full rest and wait until Monday morning.

As it turned out, it was a good call. After a very long sleep and gallons of warm water and orange juice, I was in much better shape on Monday. That killed the urge to have a doctor check me over immediately. To avoid a total boycott by colleagues, I did go to a hospital on Tuesday, and was decidedly the strongest among scores of masked patients. Problem was, the doc said I was okay now, and there was no need for a swine flu test. He prescribed all the standard medicines and sent me home after I paid a Bt800 bill.

At first I thought, "Fine, if it happens to be real swine flu in the end, I'll sue your hospital." But then people told me hospitals and labs were being overwhelmed and the doctor who examined me may have done a sensible thing (except for charging Bt800 for listening to my breathing for 30 seconds and prescribing a dozen paracetamol pills and a cough syrup, that is).

Was it swine flu? I can't really tell. Despite not going to see a doctor for those first three days, I was under the intensive care of my sister, who is a pharmacist, so it could be that the virus just gave up on me and simply left. I was not such a good host, so to speak.

There must be numerous better hosts out there, and I'm all for a greater, collective national response to this health crisis. There is no point shutting down schools when crammed factories or workplaces continue to operate and big, crowded events are going ahead. I mean, we are not certain if the virus is smart, but surely it isn't stupid enough to take a day's break if all the schools near the Rajamangkala Stadium are closed but tens of thousands of football fans are flocking to the venue to watch Liverpool.

The authorities are saying that Thailand's 0.4 per cent fatality rate means the situation is still manageable. Other facts, however, have been papered over. In a matter of weeks, Thailand has emerged from zero infection to claim Asia's most-infected-country status. The virus, it has been reported, may be showing signs of resistance to the widely-used vaccine, tamiflu. And if hospitals and labs are already flooded with work when things are "manageable", what will happen when they aren't?

Can wearing masks and washing hands stop an epidemic, whereas our other lifestyle habits remain more or less the same? They probably can, but if we are wrong about that, the cost could be massive. To me, viruses are not to be trusted. Some, we have learned, are so innovative that their virulence may decline when it seems they may run out of hosts.

I'm no expert, but here's my take on the Thai situation: If I was someone with power, I'd never take a chance on this being a kind-hearted, considerate virus that knows when to stop after having killed enough people.