<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>23 more cases in S'pore as infections hit 126
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jamie Ee Wen Wei and Lee Xin En
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
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Another 23 new Influenza A (H1N1) cases have surfaced, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Singapore to 126 by last night.
Of the new cases, two were unlinked - that is, the victims have no travel history or known contact with confirmed cases, while six have been traced to two clusters.
Four patients yesterday are said to attend Riverlife Church in Loyang Besar Close.
Another patient diagnosed last Friday, the 103rd case, also attends the service there. The 14-year-old boy and the 104th case, a 12-year-old male, are brothers.
All five patients had attended the church service on either June 13 or 14. They developed symptoms several days later.
Another cluster identified is a group of three foreigners on a student exchange programme with the National University of Singapore (NUS). They travelled with a group of NUS schoolmates to Thailand for an educational trip between June 5 and 8.
Two of them - one is a 24-year-old Columbian woman and the other a 22-year-old American woman - were diagnosed with H1N1 flu yesterday. The other case was registered last Friday.
The leap in the number of local and unlinked cases may signal the start of community-level outbreaks in Singapore.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said two weeks ago that if that happens, the country will switch from a 'containment' strategy to a 'mitigation' strategy, although it will try to maintain containment measures for as long as is practical.
This means resources will be focused on caring for those who are ill, instead of the current strategy of quarantining potential and confirmed patients.
Since last Wednesday, there has been a minimum of 10 H1N1 cases diagnosed daily. The highest number registered was last Friday, when 26 new cases were reported.
Doctors whom The Sunday Times spoke to said they are bracing themselves for community spread, which they say will increase at a very fast pace.
'The worst case scenario would be the appearance of a new strain which is deadlier and which causes more deaths, an increased mortality rate that would force the government to take forceful steps,' said a polyclinic doctor who declined to be named.
Several Singaporeans who The Sunday Times spoke to said they were concerned about the fast- spreading disease.
Housewife Goh Lay Leng, 48, said: 'I am definitely worried about the epidemic, and I go to the MOH website to check daily...But otherwise, I have not taken any special precautions. Life goes on as normal.'
While some people have welcomed the possibility of an extended school break as a measure to break the virus chain, others feel that more can be done.
One general practitioner, Dr Lily Aw, 53, hopes the business community will follow suit. 'The business community should also practise this and allow staff returning from affected countries to work from home. This will also test the robustness of their business continuity plans,' she said.
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jamie Ee Wen Wei and Lee Xin En
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
Another 23 new Influenza A (H1N1) cases have surfaced, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Singapore to 126 by last night.
Of the new cases, two were unlinked - that is, the victims have no travel history or known contact with confirmed cases, while six have been traced to two clusters.
Four patients yesterday are said to attend Riverlife Church in Loyang Besar Close.
Another patient diagnosed last Friday, the 103rd case, also attends the service there. The 14-year-old boy and the 104th case, a 12-year-old male, are brothers.
All five patients had attended the church service on either June 13 or 14. They developed symptoms several days later.
Another cluster identified is a group of three foreigners on a student exchange programme with the National University of Singapore (NUS). They travelled with a group of NUS schoolmates to Thailand for an educational trip between June 5 and 8.
Two of them - one is a 24-year-old Columbian woman and the other a 22-year-old American woman - were diagnosed with H1N1 flu yesterday. The other case was registered last Friday.
The leap in the number of local and unlinked cases may signal the start of community-level outbreaks in Singapore.
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said two weeks ago that if that happens, the country will switch from a 'containment' strategy to a 'mitigation' strategy, although it will try to maintain containment measures for as long as is practical.
This means resources will be focused on caring for those who are ill, instead of the current strategy of quarantining potential and confirmed patients.
Since last Wednesday, there has been a minimum of 10 H1N1 cases diagnosed daily. The highest number registered was last Friday, when 26 new cases were reported.
Doctors whom The Sunday Times spoke to said they are bracing themselves for community spread, which they say will increase at a very fast pace.
'The worst case scenario would be the appearance of a new strain which is deadlier and which causes more deaths, an increased mortality rate that would force the government to take forceful steps,' said a polyclinic doctor who declined to be named.
Several Singaporeans who The Sunday Times spoke to said they were concerned about the fast- spreading disease.
Housewife Goh Lay Leng, 48, said: 'I am definitely worried about the epidemic, and I go to the MOH website to check daily...But otherwise, I have not taken any special precautions. Life goes on as normal.'
While some people have welcomed the possibility of an extended school break as a measure to break the virus chain, others feel that more can be done.
One general practitioner, Dr Lily Aw, 53, hopes the business community will follow suit. 'The business community should also practise this and allow staff returning from affected countries to work from home. This will also test the robustness of their business continuity plans,' she said.
