There wasn’t much crowd in the bank when I went there early morning 2 days back to get a DD (Yes, the brick and mortar structures still exist!). A middle-aged person who was standing in front of the window moved aside so I could hand over my form to the bank employee.

Just then the security guard standing next to the entrance nodded towards this man and jokingly said to the bank employee “Stand well away from this gentleman. He has just come from Pune.” The man also smiled and said “Yeah, yeah, I have got the virus with me.”

I felt a curious mixture of feelings – appreciation for their attitude towards the paranoia that is gripping the rest of the country, fear because I had been standing right next to this guy for 5 minutes at least and anger that this gentleman decided to walk straight into a public place without any regard for the safety of those inside.

This incident just firmed up my belief that this whole paranoia could have been avoided if the government had provided information on following basic questions:

1. What are the basic symptoms that the affected person can have
I saw one lady on TV who said that all she had was a sore throat – no other classic symptoms of the disease. She checked into a hospital, was diagnosed with Swine Flu, treated for it and got well within days.

2. Were all those who succumbed to the disease healthy individuals or did they have any other physical conditions that made them more vulnerable to it?

3. For how long can the virus survive in air?

4. Once inside the body, how fast can a person become sick?

And last but not the least - can a person carry the virus without having Swine Flu? For how long will the virus survive in a body like that?

In other words, the billion dollar question is - could the gentleman from Pune - who looked hale and hearty - have carried the virus?