I read with interest Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Rasdi's letter on information minister Rais Yatim's callous statement on the H1N1 situation in Malaysia.

First, let's correct the figure of 350 H1N1-related deaths in the UK bandied about by the minister. Where did the minister get those figures?

According to the UK's chief medical officer, only 40 deaths was recorded as of Aug 15 in England and Wales.

I agree with the good professor that even one death, is one death too many.

Let us compare fiqures from H1N1 cases in China, a country 50 times the size of Malaysia. The first case started about the same time but the two major cities of Beijing and Shanghai have populations greater than Malaysia.

As of Aug 12, Malaysia had 2,253 H1N1 cases and 38 deaths. In China, according to Xinhua , the number of H1N1 cases reached 2,200 on Aug 5.

The control systems vary vastly. When a group of students from UK had one infection among them, the whole group was quarantined in a hotel with no freedom of movement - even their three meals were delivered to the lobby of where their rooms were located.

This meant the kids could only come from the room door to the lobby door after the attendant has left the lobby. The hotel room lobby became an air lock to minimise infections. Not much fun for the kids but great for controlling H1N1 infection spread.

I heard (locally) an aircraft load of passengers did not undergo H1N1 quarantine procedures after one of the passengers has the flu symptoms. No wonder the figures are spiraling. Somebody is not doing his job somewhere. But just don't say it's okay because it's not.