Madam Deputy Speaker, Mr President, Mr Deputy President, Ministers present, Members of Parliament, I am not going to take very long, but I want to start by making a positive statement. I don't think we can be defeated by a unicellular organism whilst we are multicellular organisms, including our brains. [Applause.]
Before I touch on the H1N1, let me digress a little. If someone confides in me about something, and I do investigations to find out what is actually going on, that person and I have a contract. If I go and blurt it out to the media, then I would be breaching the confidentiality. This is with reference to our young lady, Caster Semenya, where health professionals did something that should not be done.
I was looking at most of our laws - I am not sure if I've missed it - trying to find a law on genetics. We need to look at whether we can't have a law on genetics in South Africa so that we can try and handle some of these things. Those health professionals need to explain why they breached the confidentiality. I was just digressing.
Let me come back to the H1N1. This is a virus, and it is unicellular. It is not only unicellular, it is a nucleus. It could be RNA or DNA. Because viruses are small and unicellular, they can mutate. All I'm trying to say is, let's not think this is the last of them. Next year we might get a new one that is going to mutate. All we need to do is to ensure that our researchers are on their toes searching for solutions to diseases that mutate and cause problems. Most of us who are well and do not have any particular disease need not worry much. I am not saying that this does not cause death. People do not die as a result of viruses, but from other conditions associated with the viruses. If a person suspects that they have H1N1, they must protect themselves because there are opportunistic infections that can kill more than the virus itself. The only viruses that kill are those that affect the heart and cause it to stop suddenly. This happens when someone has cardiac arrest. That is where the problem lies.
The Minister said very clearly that people who are vulnerable to this disease must be considered. For the 20 patients who have died, I wish I could get their postmortems so that we could know what caused their deaths. There might have been something that was underlying that might have caused the deaths over and above the virus. I am trying to allay some of the anxiety. I am not saying this is not a serious topic, but we must know that it might be around for some time and that we might even get new viruses. This won't be killing everybody but only those who particularly have problems.
With regard to emergency institutions like hospitals, if somebody goes there displaying lethal symptoms, they must be attended to before other patients. For example, if you are pregnant or have cardiac problems or lung problems, then you must be treated before other patients because you might have this virus. You must be admitted before it causes problems. These are some of the things we need to do, and the department is capable of handling these things.
We must remember that our country has poor people. Poverty goes with malnutrition, and malnutrition goes with low immunity. Low immunity might cause problems in the rural areas. The department is aware of this and it is going to handle it.
This virus is transmitted through touching. It does not jump from person to person, but it is transmitted through touching or getting close to another person. The closeness does not involve sexual intercourse. It is just closeness to a particular person.
When we talk of a low immune system, we must remember that stress and depression can lower your immunity. If you have stress from your parliamentary work, you must be aware that the H1N1 virus might attack you.
In conclusion, I would like to say that we all need to get Tamiflu. I know that the department has it, but we must remember that if we use it before being infected, the virus is going to develop resistance because it mutates easily. Like I said, it is unicellular and mutates easily. In fact we might not have another drug that could be used on this.
As the ANC, we are confident that we cannot be defeated by a unicellular organism. In fact, the ANC, being a uniparty, defeated all multiparties since 1994 until today. So, we cannot be defeated by this virus. Thank you. [Applause.]