The viral video about pigeons in a hospital ward eating patients’ meals has made many people shake their heads in disgust.
When pigeons invade wards where patients are supposed to recover, you can be sure this is not a climate change phenomenon affecting Malaysia, nor a sudden invasion that happened overnight. It is a failure in the systems meant to govern the environment.
It also echoes what many have resigned themselves to in frustration: the collapse of our national maintenance culture.
It suggests that the pigeon population, much like the crow menace, has exploded in some places.
This explosion could be driven by the public’s tendency to discard waste food irresponsibly. Wherever food waste is easily available, pigeons and crows will scavenge and thrive.
Yet people are not educated on the potential health hazards that these scavenging pigeons can pose.
It is well established that the dangers associated with pigeon droppings fall into three main categories: fungal infections, bacterial diseases and hypersensitivity reactions.
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Pigeon droppings present hidden health hazards primarily when they dry out, crumble and become airborne. Inhaling this contaminated dust can cause severe respiratory illnesses, lung scarring and systemic infections.
So where are the awareness campaigns to educate the public about these dangers? Have the authorities considered working with town councils, schools and local influencers to spread the message? There is so much more that could be done.
Since the video went viral, the hospital authorities have reassured the public that they have periodically monitored and pruned the trees around the hospital that have become nesting sites for these birds. But perhaps more should have been done than just monitoring and pruning – especially when dealing with birds known to be carriers and vectors of dangerous diseases.
The deeper concern here is not just the pigeons in our hospital wards. It is that we have a culture that remains indifferent and complacent. We fail at being proactive. We tend not to act until the problem becomes a headline, goes viral or poses a danger to life.
This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that we are seen to be reactive instead of proactive. Why do we always have to wait for failures to go viral on social media before those responsible for standards, controls and improvements act?
We are now talking about pigeons invading hospitals. Do we now wait for another video – about stray cats or rats running around – before anything is done? How about uncared-for stray dogs and cats roaming freely at eateries, markets and other places?
In this case, the Ministry of Health owes the people of Malaysia an acceptable response about its wider supervision and maintenance culture, not just a reassurance of the action that has been taken.
Media monitoring helps ensure that such potentially disastrous developments are not swept under the carpet, only to resurface after we have all conveniently forgotten about the failures.
But it is about time our public institutions make it their responsibility to act before the media picks up on them.
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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