<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>H1N1 infections have crossed 'tipping point'
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Expect a surge as local transmissions now outstrip imported cases </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
</TD><TD vAlign=bottom>
The Hong Kong Asian Youth Games football team and officials were kept waiting outside Aloha Loyang Resorts for over an hour yesterday after four players tested positive for H1N1. They were later taken to HomeTeamNS Pasir Ris chalets instead. SEE PRIME PAGE A5 -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
FOR the first time yesterday, the number of people who contracted the Influenza A (H1N1) virus in Singapore outnumbered those returning from overseas. <TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>INTO A NEW PHASE
SINGAPORE is moving from containing the Influenza A (H1N1) virus to a new 'mitigation' phase. Here is a sampling of what will change:
Detect and treat: Instead of tracing and isolating all suspected cases, the priority will be to detect and treat infected cases. Particular attention will be paid to high-risk patients.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>In a sure sign that the virus is spreading within the community, 17 of the 26 latest infections were transmitted locally.
Singapore now has a total of 168 confirmed H1N1 cases, including 41 people who contracted the virus here.
Given the experience elsewhere, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said yesterday that Singapore has 'crossed the tipping point beyond which local transmissions will grow rapidly. This may well happen this week'.
Expect many more to fall ill. Expect a few deaths for every 1,000 people with Influenza A (H1N1).
He told a press conference that Singapore was experiencing a third wave of imported H1N1 cases.
In the first wave, 26 infected people came from the United States. In the second wave, 56 arrived from Australia.
The third wave began last week, bringing H1N1 from Asean countries - more than 30 so far - and this could prove a big wave of infections, he said.
Late last night his ministry announced a new cluster of local infections, at the Fishermen of Christ Church. Ten students who attended a church camp last week are now ill with H1N1 flu.
Infections at two other clusters are up - two more at the Riverlife Church, making a total of nine, and one more at the Butter Factory nightspot, for a total of five.
Singapore will recalibrate how it deals with the virus as it spreads in the community, but Mr Khaw said there was no need for people to panic.
The alert level will stay at yellow for now, but several things will change.
Temperature scanning at the borders - which picked up one in four imported cases - will continue, but contact tracing of those close to infected individuals will be done on a case-by-case basis, depending on how ill a patient was when exposed to others.
Not everyone with the H1N1 flu will be sent to hospital.
Polyclinics and more than 450 general practitioners' clinics have geared up to handle less serious cases, possibly from this week.
Earmarked clinics will display a big red check mark, and doctors there will provide patients with antiviral medication and send them home to be quarantined.
Hospitals will concentrate only on more severely ill patients, or those with other underlying medical conditions.
'We need to allow our hospitals to focus on the high-risk cases and not be distracted or overwhelmed by hundreds of mild cases,' said Mr Khaw.
All hospitals, not just Tan Tock Seng and KK Women's and Children's Hospital, are already treating flu patients.
Other moves are in the works.
Laboratory facilities have been ramped up, and all major hospitals are capable of testing for H1N1, or soon will be.
Mr Khaw also sounded a note of caution about the nature of the H1N1 virus.
While the scientific consensus is that it carries a moderate risk and almost everyone infected will recover fully with treatment, he said: 'Moderate risk does not mean no death.'
Based on figures from the United States, H1N1 could be almost four times as fatal as seasonal flu - 0.37 per cent of those infected have died, compared with 0.1 per cent for normal flu.
That means for every 1,000 who fall ill, there could be a few deaths.
World Health Organisation (WHO) experts say a third of a country's population can get infected. For Singapore, that would mean over a million people.
'Those are frightening figures. But those are theoretically, potentially possible,' Mr Khaw said.
His advice to everyone: Maintain a high standard of personal hygiene. And those at high risk - such as pregnant women and people with chronic ailments - should take greater precautions, such as wearing masks when going out.
'H1N1 is now globally pandemic, like other seasonal flu strains. We have to learn to co-exist with it,' he said.
[email protected]
=> Paying ministers $$$millions won't help?
<!-- end of for each --><!-- Current Ratings : start --><!-- Current Ratings : end --><!-- vbbintegration : start -->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Expect a surge as local transmissions now outstrip imported cases </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
The Hong Kong Asian Youth Games football team and officials were kept waiting outside Aloha Loyang Resorts for over an hour yesterday after four players tested positive for H1N1. They were later taken to HomeTeamNS Pasir Ris chalets instead. SEE PRIME PAGE A5 -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
FOR the first time yesterday, the number of people who contracted the Influenza A (H1N1) virus in Singapore outnumbered those returning from overseas. <TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>INTO A NEW PHASE
SINGAPORE is moving from containing the Influenza A (H1N1) virus to a new 'mitigation' phase. Here is a sampling of what will change:
Detect and treat: Instead of tracing and isolating all suspected cases, the priority will be to detect and treat infected cases. Particular attention will be paid to high-risk patients.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>In a sure sign that the virus is spreading within the community, 17 of the 26 latest infections were transmitted locally.
Singapore now has a total of 168 confirmed H1N1 cases, including 41 people who contracted the virus here.
Given the experience elsewhere, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said yesterday that Singapore has 'crossed the tipping point beyond which local transmissions will grow rapidly. This may well happen this week'.
Expect many more to fall ill. Expect a few deaths for every 1,000 people with Influenza A (H1N1).
He told a press conference that Singapore was experiencing a third wave of imported H1N1 cases.
In the first wave, 26 infected people came from the United States. In the second wave, 56 arrived from Australia.
The third wave began last week, bringing H1N1 from Asean countries - more than 30 so far - and this could prove a big wave of infections, he said.
Late last night his ministry announced a new cluster of local infections, at the Fishermen of Christ Church. Ten students who attended a church camp last week are now ill with H1N1 flu.
Infections at two other clusters are up - two more at the Riverlife Church, making a total of nine, and one more at the Butter Factory nightspot, for a total of five.
Singapore will recalibrate how it deals with the virus as it spreads in the community, but Mr Khaw said there was no need for people to panic.
The alert level will stay at yellow for now, but several things will change.
Temperature scanning at the borders - which picked up one in four imported cases - will continue, but contact tracing of those close to infected individuals will be done on a case-by-case basis, depending on how ill a patient was when exposed to others.
Not everyone with the H1N1 flu will be sent to hospital.
Polyclinics and more than 450 general practitioners' clinics have geared up to handle less serious cases, possibly from this week.
Earmarked clinics will display a big red check mark, and doctors there will provide patients with antiviral medication and send them home to be quarantined.
Hospitals will concentrate only on more severely ill patients, or those with other underlying medical conditions.
'We need to allow our hospitals to focus on the high-risk cases and not be distracted or overwhelmed by hundreds of mild cases,' said Mr Khaw.
All hospitals, not just Tan Tock Seng and KK Women's and Children's Hospital, are already treating flu patients.
Other moves are in the works.
Laboratory facilities have been ramped up, and all major hospitals are capable of testing for H1N1, or soon will be.
Mr Khaw also sounded a note of caution about the nature of the H1N1 virus.
While the scientific consensus is that it carries a moderate risk and almost everyone infected will recover fully with treatment, he said: 'Moderate risk does not mean no death.'
Based on figures from the United States, H1N1 could be almost four times as fatal as seasonal flu - 0.37 per cent of those infected have died, compared with 0.1 per cent for normal flu.
That means for every 1,000 who fall ill, there could be a few deaths.
World Health Organisation (WHO) experts say a third of a country's population can get infected. For Singapore, that would mean over a million people.
'Those are frightening figures. But those are theoretically, potentially possible,' Mr Khaw said.
His advice to everyone: Maintain a high standard of personal hygiene. And those at high risk - such as pregnant women and people with chronic ailments - should take greater precautions, such as wearing masks when going out.
'H1N1 is now globally pandemic, like other seasonal flu strains. We have to learn to co-exist with it,' he said.
[email protected]
=> Paying ministers $$$millions won't help?
<!-- end of for each --><!-- Current Ratings : start --><!-- Current Ratings : end --><!-- vbbintegration : start -->
