How far would you consider the measures taken by various countries to contain the spread of swine flu adequate and effective?

Since the outbreak of the formerly known as Swine Flu, now the H1N1 virus, it has brought chaos to the world and many countries immediately took measures against it to contain the spread of the virus. Are they effective or adequate?

Asia, a continent that has battled deadly viruses such as the H5N1 bird flu and SARS in recent years, began taking steps over the weeks to ward off a new strain of flu virus H1N1. China's quarantine authority an issued emergency notices requiring people to report flu-like symptoms at ports of entry when coming from swine flu-affected places. The ministries of health and agriculture say they are closely monitoring the situation. The government of South Korea has stepped up quarantine and safety checks on travelers arriving from the United States and Mexico, as well as pork imports from these countries. Emergency quarantine system was up and running, with simple tests conducted on people arriving with flu symptoms at airports. Besides Hong Kong had stepped up surveillance at border control points and travelers found with swine flu symptoms will be taken to hospitals for further checks. Samples taken from people with flu-like symptoms and who had traveled in the affected places within seven days before the onset of symptoms will be tested in laboratories. People who develop respiratory illness within seven days after returning from the affected places should put on a surgical mask and seek medical consultation from public clinics and hospitals immediately. This is also implemented in Singapore. Europe and Africa has also taken precautionary steps being taken to combat the H1N1 virus.

The main and common problem in these countries are that people still get infected in the end. This clearly shows the ineffectiveness of the measures taken by the countries. Probably these are the best out of all other alternative measures against the pandemic but I think that the ultimate cause of the continual spreading of the virus is due to our lack of preparations and precautions before even the virus is founded. We have to discuss and defend possible future worldwide problems such as this. I am sure we have learned our lesson from SARS and should have anticipated and prepared for such other possible uprising pandemics. Although we have reacted very fast, implemented measures as soon as possible and communications was well done among the countries, I think we could have done even better if we had prepared beforehand.

Moreover, such measures are desperate ones whereby it affects many other areas of a country such as tourism, development and economy in general. There were many inconvenience made to people who traveled abroad probably due to lack of manpower so I think that we should have planned for all these beforehand. The measures taken are inadequate. If there were sufficient, it would have been much more effective and the virus would not spread so quickly.