Swine flu deaths: 27. World Health Organisation's threat level: five out of six. Has the risk of a swine flu pandemic been over-hyped in the media? Ryan Bubear and Lindiwe Mlandu go head-to-head…

Ryan Bubear blames the media for hyping up the possibility of a swine flu pandemic…

You wake up with a dry throat and a mild case of the sniffles. Panic quickly sets in. Didn’t you have sweet 'n' sour pork on Monday night? And Mexican takeout on Tuesday? Could you be struck down by the dreaded A(H1N1) virus?

Calm down. There's no need gallop out and order a container-load of Tamiflu just yet.

While it may seem foolish to make light of any disease, at the moment it remains a fact that recent incidents of swine flu infections in humans have been relatively few and far between.

As I write, the official death toll since the outbreak stands at 27, with all but one inside Mexico’s borders (26 fatalities is miniscule as a percentage of the country’s 110-million-strong population). Now consider this: annual deaths worldwide due to 'normal' flu have been estimated to be as high as 500 000. That's right, the common-or-garden variety can be pretty darn lethal in the right circumstances.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of my colleagues in the media, exaggeration in the press has played a massive role in the high degree of panic, which has spread far faster than the virus itself. In short, the topic has been over-hyped in an attempt to keep readers/viewers/listeners glued to their seats.

Suspected infections are widely reported but how many of these actually test positive for the virus? South Africa's supposed 'victims' are alive and kicking and turned out to suffer (briefly) from a flu which was not at all of the swine variety.

Furthermore, the world has been warned to be on the lookout for "flu-like symptoms". Honestly, if statements like this aren’t inciting unnecessary hysteria, then I don't know what is. If you're sitting in the office right now, listen carefully and you're bound to hear someone sniffing, sneezing or coughing within the next five minutes. Yet I highly doubt a single one of them has swine flu. It's fast approaching winter in half the world for crying out loud… plain ol' influenza and hay fever are rife.

Drug companies must be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of selling a myriad of drugs to desperate quasi-Münchausens the world over. In fact, public alarm is so rampant that shares in the hand-wash and surgical-mask industry don't sound too bad an idea.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not prepared to travel to a place like Mexico anytime soon. And serious precautions obviously need to be taken in the hardest-hit regions to prevent more deaths. But there is absolutely no sense in making the situation appear more desperate than it is in reality.

As things stand at the moment, the majority of the world has a low risk of contracting and dying from swine flu. Until this risk manifests itself as a truly wide-spread infection rate (reaching a pandemic level) and a large number of deaths, it will remain over-hyped.

Lindiwe Mlandu thinks that it is better to err on the side of caution, even if it means a little panic…

Knowledge is power — if there is a new epidemic threatening the human race, we have the right to know. Swine flu is a very real threat and because the world is one big global village, it may well end up on our door step.

Admitting this is hardly over-hyping the issue.

We need to acknowledge that flu is spread far more easily than HIV/Aids, and perhaps even cholera, because it is airborne. All it takes is one sneeze or cough.

Let's learn from history. In 1918 the Spanish flu killed between 20 and 50 million people worldwide — far exceeding the number of people killed in World War I. Yes, that was a long time ago and the world has evolved. We now have better medicines to treat diseases. But we have also increased our ability, through travel and dense urban populations, to spread disease.

In South Africa we have the added threat of HIV/Aids. People living with HIV/Aids are more vulnerable to disease and infection because of weakened immune systems. If a flu pandemic took hold in South Africa, the results could be catastrophic.

We have seen the dangers of covering up a crisis. Zimbabwe, where thousands of people recently died during a cholera outbreak, is the latest example of that. The Zimbabwean government was busy covering up the disease instead of ringing the alarm. People died and many would argue that if the situation were given the attention it deserved, many deaths could have been prevented.

The Zimbabwean situation should be a lesson to the world. Don't wait until it is too late before sounding the alarm.

Negligence has cost us a lot in the past. Our second democratic president, with his denialist approach to the problem of HIV/Aids, is indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands. But the buck does not stop with him. Bear in mind that the epidemic had time to flourish before his reign. The world ignored HIV/Aids for a decade because it was regarded as a "gay" disease. Many lives had to be lost before it was taken seriously and the world was told to panic.

If history has taught us anything it is that there is no harm in too much information. Too much hype may result in panic, but it can also prevent another medical holocaust.

Do you agree with Ryan or Lindiwe? Share your thoughts below...

The beggar gauntlet Rebekah Kendal reckons that begging is bad for SA because it fosters a culture of dependency.

Visit our politics page Need the latest political news, features, interviews and profiles? Visit our dedicated page...

Behind closed doors Rebekah Kendal reckons that the real losers in the Percy saga are victims of domestic abuse.