Worst of first H1N1 wave in S’pore could be over
Channel NewsAsia - Saturday, August 8

SINGAPORE: Singapore may be past the worst of its first H1N1 wave

According to head of the Communicable Diseases Centre at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), Dr Leo Yee Sin, it appears “to be (on) a downward trend”.

This seems to reaffirm Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan’s outlook in late July that H1N1 infections here would peak over the subsequent two weeks before starting to decline.

But Dr Leo added: “I think we need to wait one or two more weeks for things to become clearer.”

Speaking on Friday at the 43rd Singapore—Malaysia Congress of Medicine, she pointed out that Singapore’s experience with H1N1 has been the “mirror image” of the experience of the United States.

That being so, the good news is this virus could, in fact, be “a milder one” than the seasonal flu bug. There are fewer H1N1— related deaths in the US, than deaths from the normal flu.

At TTSH, while there was an increase in patients with pneumonia admitted during the earlier surge in H1N1 cases, there was no increase in pneumonia deaths due specifically to H1N1, said Dr Leo.

Still, she cautioned: “We’re possibly still in the middle of the H1N1 pandemic. There is a lot to learn and watch closely.”

On influenza in general, speakers at the congress touched on the disease’s impact on, among other things, the economy and employers. And in Dr Leo’s view, flu “treatments and vaccines are grossly underutilised in our population”.

When TTSH started testing patients with flu—like illnesses — before Singapore had its first H1N1 case — only six per cent had a history of flu vaccinations.

She also called for more structured programmes to monitor and manage flu. “With our biomedical research capability, we can be a leading centre for influenza research in the tropics.”