SINGAPORE, 05:55 AM Jun 04, 2009
THE first eight cases were relatively straightforward - the patients were on separate flights and developed symptoms within a day of arriving in Singapore. Some were unwell before that.
But Singapore's 9th, 10th and 11th Influenza A (H1N1) cases, announced yesterday, were somewhat different - with one patient developing symptoms five days after leaving the United States and the two others discovered to have been on the same flight as an earlier patient.
The Ministry of Health gave this update on the same day it widened its list of affected areas - those with clear evidence of widespread community transmission - to include Melbourne and the state of Victoria in Australia, Kobe and Osaka in Japan and Chile.
But Singapore is, for now, free from any community-acquired infection, despite the nature of the latest cases.
Patients 10 and 11 were 35 rows and three rows away on Flight SQ 25 from an already unwell Patient 7, who had gone straight to a clinic at Changi Airport upon arrival from New York on Monday morning.
Later that morning, Patient 10, a 33-year-old Singaporean female who was on Row 19, developed symptoms after returning home.
She remained home for the rest of the day. On Tuesday, she stayed home the whole day and in the evening, took a taxi to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she was admitted to the hospital's Communicable Disease Centre 2 wing.
Patient 11, an 18-year-old female American visitor who was on Row 57, developed symptoms slightly later - on Tuesday afternoon - and took a taxi that evening with her relative in Singapore to Raffles Hospital's emergency department. She was transferred to CDC2 in the early hours yesterday.
MOH's risk assessment for passengers on Flight SQ 25 has not changed, though.
Contact tracing is underway, and like in all earlier cases extends only to passengers seated two rows to the front and back of each respective patient. This follows the World Health Organization's recommendations. It is also not known when the two latest patients were infected.
The known incubation period of the H1N1 virus is up to seven days. This is why MOH is confident Patient 9, a 19-year-old Singaporean student back for her summer holidays, is also "most likely" an imported case even though she developed symptoms on Monday, five days after flying in from New York on All Nippon Airways Flight NH 901.
"She has travel history to an affected country and Singapore is still free of community-acquired infection," the ministry told Today.
The patient was at home "most of the time", the ministry added, and only contacts in the 24 hours prior to her onset of symptoms - the start of the infectious window - were traced. MOH identified two family members, who will be served home quarantine orders (HQOs).
All contacts with the 7th and 8th case have also been accounted for, with 15 HQOs served. Five foreigners have no local address. MOH has alerted the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority if they "should turn up at our checkpoints".
Meanwhile, with the number of cases in the Australian state of Victoria, particularly its capital Melbourne, doubling to almost 400 in the last two days, MOH has advised the public to avoid non-essential travel there, as well as to Kobe and Osaka, where 90 per cent of Japan's cases have been found. In Chile, its government announced that the virus is entrenched in the community.
MOH also reminded those who become unwell after returning from any affected area to call 993 for an ambulance - and not to take public transport or taxis. Infections, nonetheless, should arise only from sustained close contact.
From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.
No comments:
Post a Comment