Schools to re-open as scheduled despite H1N1 situation

Schools to re-open as scheduled despite H1N1 situation
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 22 June 2009 1823 hrs

SINGAPORE: Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has said schools will re-open and the Asian Youth Games and National Day celebrations will carry on.

But recently-returned students who have travelled to affected countries will stay at home for one week before joining their classmates when schools re-open on Monday.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) will provide more details soon, added Mr Khaw.

The health minister was speaking at a news conference on Monday to give an update on the latest developments on the Influenza A(H1N1)situation.

Mr Khaw said that overall, life must continue as normally as possible with targeted control measures.

One of them would be to close a school when a significant cluster is found so as to break the transmission or to isolate a competing team from other athletes as was done with the Filipino and the Hong Kong football players.

Mr Khaw also revealed that the scientific committee, chaired by the Director of Medical Services, is effectively evaluating the characteristics and the genome of the virus.

The committee has determined that the H1N1 virus in Singapore remains identical with that in North America.

Hence, the consensus view was that the virus remains moderate-risk and Singaporeans need not panic over the development that there is now community spread in the country.

Mr Khaw is confident that almost all infected cases will be able to recover fully and that Tamiflu and Relenza remain effective against the disease.

He, however, added: "But I thought I should explain that moderate risk does not mean no death. Just like the seasonal flu, there will be some deaths. That's why we need to target the high-risk patients, especially those with underlying medical conditions and to render the best chance of a full recovery. And that is why we need to allow our hospitals to be able to focus on the high-risk cases and not be distracted or overwhelmed by hundreds of mild cases."

Among those in the high risk include pregnant mothers, people with asthma, those on kidney dialysis or on chemotherapy.

The Health Ministry intends to advise these groups of patients with direct mailers of what they can do to protect themselves.

On its part, the Health Ministry is also gearing up all its polyclinics and a few hundred general practitioners to treat suspected H1N1 cases in Singapore.

Giving details of measures to tackle a wider community spread of the influenza, Mr Khaw explained that these will be called Pandemic Preparedness Clinics or PPCs and they can be recognised by their decal to handle walk-in suspect cases.

These clinics will only refer some categories of high-risk suspect patients to public hospitals.

Mr Khaw said the Health Ministry would publicise to Singaporeans where these clinics are so they know where to seek advice.

He explained: "When the local bio-surveillance data confirms significant community spread and we need to move from containment to full mitigation, we will signal to the public to use these PPCs instead of going to the hospitals if their flu conditions are mild. And this may happen over the next few days."

The Health Minister also revealed that the government would secure adequate supplies of the H1N1 vaccine for the population.

Besides the existing supply contract with the vaccine manufacturer, Mr Khaw said the ministry is also in active negotiations with other vaccine manufacturers. The aim is to diversify the supply of H1N1 vaccines.

Concluding, Mr Khaw said that last week has been eventful in the development of the outbreak in Singapore and the ministry expects this development.

That's because June would be challenging, given the large number of travellers returning from their holidays.

But the seven-week head start in battling the virus has been extremely useful, Mr Khaw said, to allow the government to gear up its system for the community spread phase of the outbreak.

His advice to Singaporeans: just carry on with your lives normally but keep up the high standard of personal hygiene.

- CNA/ir

- wong chee tat :)