Flu pandemic has hit us
So far, 94 countries in the world have confirmed more than 44,000 cases of H1N1 infection. The WHO has declared the flu a pandemic and many countries have sustained community infection.
Residents who are older than 50 would have experienced three pandemics in their lives, including the latest H1N1 pandemic. The last two were in 1957 and 1968. More than a million people died world wide. These two pandemics may have caused up to 1000 deaths in Singapore.
As of 21 June, 142 persons have been infected by the H1N1 virus. Among them are several persons who have not travelled to affected countries or come into known contact with confirmed H1N1 patients. In other words, the virus has entered Singapore, and the local cases signal the start of community spread. We should not be surprised. We managed to delay the entry and spread of the H1N1 virus for almost seven weeks before we started to have local cases. This is due to the aggressive containment measures we took in the first phase, including screening for people with fever at the borders. We also spent a lot of resources trying to track down those who were in close contact with confirmed H1N1 cases and quarantined them.
But now, almost 17% of the cases are local cases and from the experience of other countries, there will be many more local community spread cases in the weeks to come. We need to move from the containment strategy to the mitigation strategy so that we can shift more of our resources to treating the infected persons, especially the high-risk ones, and less on contact tracing which has limited effect once community spread occurs. During the mitigation phase, contact tracing will be more focused depending on the advice of the medical experts.
Are we now better prepared for a Pandemic?
Many Singaporeans were hit by SARS in 2003. 238 were diagnosed with the SARS virus and 33 died eventually. About 6,000 people were quarantined. After that bad experience, we started whole-of-government preparations for a flu pandemic. We built on the lessons learnt from the SARS outbreak in 2003.
We set up a national crisis management system to deal with such civil contingencies. I chair a Ministerial Committee comprising Ministers from all key Ministries to coordinate a Whole-of-Government approach to managing the H1N1 outbreak. We are now much better prepared to deal with this pandemic.
What can our residents do?
Now that the H1N1 flu virus has started to spread in the community, we have to be more vigilant. Each of us has an important part to play to slow down the spread of the disease.
We can successfully slow down the spread of H1N1 infections to others if everyone takes adequate precautions. This is what we can do:
• Practise good personal hygiene at all times
• Wash our hands regularly and thoroughly with soap and water, especially before touching the eyes, nose or mouth.
• Turn quickly away from anyone near if we are about to cough or sneeze.
• Cover the nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing.
• Avoid crowded areas or social activities if we are ill.
• See the doctor promptly and wear mask if ill.
• Avoid taking public transport or taxi to minimise exposure.
More information on the H1N1 flu and precautions you can take are found at these government websites:
www.moh.gov.sg
www.crisis.gov.sg/flu
We can minimise the transmission and the number of cases in Singapore if we all play our part and be socially responsible.
In the coming weeks, we may have to postpone some of our large scale community activities as the situation gets worse. We will also buy vaccines when these are tested to be effective in protecting us from the H1N1 virus.
Wishing all of you good health.
WONG KAN SENG
22 June 2009
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