My Life and NIPAH Virus

My Life and NIPAH Virus

Tenzin Lhadon

I thought that i had the greatest family ever...

Actually I had, until he came into my life...NIPHA VIRUS!.He was something that i can't control, something unacceptable and something.... horrible!

I lived in a village called Sungai Nipha in Malaysia with my parents and my younger sister who is barely a year old. As for me, I am Gina, a ten years old girl...I was everyone’s favourite and laughter. I use to help my father with his farm and my mother with her animal husbandary..When i get free time i use to help my uncle and aunt with their shops and i also use to spent time with the grandparents listening to their folk tales....I had no friend that i could play with because i was always busy helping the elder one accept for Ream,My cute baby pig..She was all i have as a friend.

Everything was going fine and happy...But one dreadful evening, my mother got sick. She had very high fever and she coughed a lot..We showed her to doctor and they said it will go away quickly..We gave her the medicine that doctor prescribed and slept. Next morning, She was quite better than last night so she went to work. We thought it was not that much serious as it happened to be.Day after day,she keep having headache and high fever. She keeps coughing a lot and somethimes she can't even breadth..We called our Uncle and aunt, they carried her to the city for a better doctor.I was left with my Ream and aunt..I got so worried and scared..Scared thinking that she will leave me alone and forever..For the whole two weeks i had no one that could nurse me to sleep..My aunt barely comes to me as she got super busy with her shop.All i had as my parent and as my family was Ream..she was all i had.

After two weeks, I hurried outside with joy and excitement to meet my mother once again...I found my father and uncle crying and sobbing until they saw me and my father came running towards me and hugged me..That time i didn't feel the warmth of his body but the cold sorrow that he brought with him..And my first greatest love and laughter was snatched away from me..

Along with my father some of the nurses and doctors came  for check up and took some sample of what my mother use to have and wear..After some days they came again, and this time they has the reason behind why my mother died, the newly found desease NIPHA VIRUS!!.They told us that it was their first time knowing such kind of virus as they never had such desease before..They said they don't have cure right now so all we could do is to prevent it before anything gets wrong..They started going  all around the village in search of infected people..Not many days after my mother died,Someone was also got by that virus and then day after day many poeple got sick and we came to know that this virus can spread though human to human through direct contact. ,many were dead and many were  scared..The doctors can't do anything,they just gave hopes to those who were dying and created awareness to those who were scared and was fully stranger to such kind of desease...

Months passed and the doctors and the researchers got to know more about the virus..They found that the virus can spread among humans and to those who have close contact with infected pigs thus they wanted all the pigs in our village to be killed.Even my  Ream...I told them she was not infected and dangerouse..i told them she had nothing to do with that virus..i told them i need her and I told them she is a part of my family.But no one listened, even my father.They took away all the pigs and killed them without a single mercy..And then  our village has became a cemetry with full of unburied dead body of humans and pigs..people were scared about there unknowing death..They don't want to be captured by that deadly desease and they they don't want to die being a host of that virus..Most of them moved to city and so my uncle and aunt did.They carried my little sister with them and promised my dad to take care of her and raise her well..Our village were under big research and was also in great danger..Half of our poeple were dead and one forth went to city.people like me and my father were left helping the doctors and researcher.

I once dreamed of my own family with my own parents.I once wish for my parents to live long so that  my children will have someone they call as grandparents. I wished to have a wonderful and a happy life.But now all those dreams and my wishes washed away with the endless blood of my poor villagers and the animals.

My father wants me  to go with my aunt,but i don't wanna let  him die alone..i wanted to take care of him until he take his last breath.Day after day my father got worse and he was near his death.All i could do is watch him dying, suffering and crying out in pain so much.I couldn't even guide my  parents well to their death bed.I couldn't get good time to give them a nice farewell and i couldn't get enough time to tell them how much i love them and how much i will miss them..All i could do is cry, cry and cry my lungs out.

People sent by the government gave us food and shelter..They had been very nice to us, specially Dr.Clay.He was with me when i was hopeless and crying endless after my father's death."Thats enough!!"I shouted myself by the river under the full moon."I had this enough of you...you took away all i had..All my poor family and my friend..Now i had no one to rely upon and its all your fault..What have i done to you that you could be so rude to me like this..Why??"I cried talking to myself."Ahem..sorry to interrupt your crying but can I join you??"This was the first time meeting with Dr.Clay.He sat beside me.."This is nobody's fault...And if you really want to blame someone.Then blame him."He pointed to a fruit bad hanging on a tree.."We were first clueless about this dreadful desease..Nobody knows until your mother came.You can't blame yourself or no one..And not only you but most of the villager's lost there loving family..Some are orpan like you,some lost there children..And some are not wanting this sad story of there life..Not only you but all are struggling hard and wanting this to end fast....Listen, you have to be strong and and never let that virus catch you.."He was right after all...I have been only worring about myself and my family..I have been so selfish...I couldn't waste my limited life crying and regreting what happened in past..I have to feel lucky that i am still alive and have to make the best out of it.."Can you please help me??"i asked.And he nodded."I have to go to city...i have to go to my aunt and uncle..Can you please do that for me??"I plead."What about coming with me and being something that could help them...I am unmarried and have no family...You could be a family..what do you say??"He suggested.."Thank you so much for your kindness..I would love to do so.."i agreed and decided to spent my life with him...

Year passed and my village became smaller with healthy people but leaded by hundred death of my poor villagers.That virus has spread among country to country by the time..Thousand were died in Bangladesh, Singapore and India.We still hasn't found any cure for that virus and still many people are dying around the world..And recently there was an outbreak of Nipha virus in a place called Kerela in India.

We still can't stop and eliminate that virus forever.It keeps spreading and spreading killing thousand of innocent poeple.Me and my group went to diffrent part of the world where Nipha has attacked.We help as much as we could and helped as much as we can..

"Dr.Gina, our next visit is Kerela,India"My assistant told me.."Sure...Lets do this thing!....We don't know how many people we will be able to save and how many poeple  will die infront of us....But we still need to help them and do whatever we can to prevent it because.."i shouted.."PREVENTION IS BETTER THEN CURE!!!"we all shouted....

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A disappearing paradise

A disappearing paradise  

Tenzin Tsomo XI A

Rainforests since time reminiscent have been a place of great wonder and curiosity. These places are known to have the most diverse and vibrant forms of living species in the world as, these rich biomes are the natural habitats of about three-fourths of known plant and animal species in the world. Mostly found in Latin America( One fourth in Brazil), Southeast Asia, Africa, and in some Pacific islands, tropical rainforests as well as temperate rainforests found in some continents near the pacific are the most fascinating places of extensive research and adventure for zoologists around the world.

We humans, rely on rainforests for the production and direct consumption of a large variety of organic products. Also a large number of vegetables and staple crops which are prevalent in our daily diet are originally from the rainforests. One of the main attractions in the rainforest resources is the exotic amount and variety of wood found in these places. This accounts to the great demand for logging of rainforest trees for commercial purposes. Other than that rainforests are major contributors to the terrestrial global carbon pool or to  put it more simply the carbon cycle. They are beneficiary for not only humans but for every living organism surviving till now.

Sadly, the human greed for the rainforest resources are causing great changes and are rapidly taking toll on the animals and plant species living in them. In the ancient times these biomes were cleared/or in more literal meaning, ’razed to the ground for farming purposes through the method of shifting cultivation. This practice has destroyed great tracts of rainforest areas.  But the shift to the modern twenty first century has posed a surprising and an even greater threat for the rainforests. Such type of threats, which may eventually lead to the extinction of these great natural habitats.

 With reference to the conservation groups, it is estimated that globally, the equivalent of two football fields of rainforests (about 2.5 acres  or 1 acre ) is destroyed in a passing second and each day amounts to an area larger than New York City or about 214,000 acres of rainforest area! . The destruction is paving the way to the extinction of more than 100 species a day and about 20 percent of the surviving species within a generation. The countermeasures for protecting the rainforests can be performed but if we belittle the action plan, the chances of saving these natural paradise is simply ‘zero’.

 It is in our hands, whether we choose to wait and watch or, do something today that our future world will thank you for. 

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