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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Thailand reports first 2 swine flu-related deaths

06/27/2009 | 09:37 PM

BANGKOK – Thai health officials announced on Saturday the country's first two swine flu-related deaths, while Australia reported its fifth. All three patients also had other health problems.

A 40-year-old Thai woman died June 20 at a Bangkok hospital, while a 42-year-old Thai man died Saturday at a hospital in southern Chonburi province, Public Health Ministry Deputy Permanent Secretary Dr. Paichai Warachit said.

Paichai said her office was only told late Friday about the woman's death. It was unclear where the two contracted the virus, and the ministry refused to identify them.

"It is confirmed that the two patients died because of the H1N1 virus and also because they had pneumonia," Paichai said.

The Public Health Ministry said more than 1,200 people have contracted swine flu as of Saturday, including seven Navy cadets. Most have recovered, though 16 remain in the hospital. None was in critical condition.

In Australia, a 26-year-old woman who also had a serious pre-existing medical condition died late Friday after spending several days in Royal Perth Hospital's intensive care unit, Western Australia chief health officer Tarun Weeramanthri said. Her identity and details of her medical condition were not released.

As of Friday, 3,519 people in Australia had been diagnosed with the virus.

Myanmar reported its first case of the disease on Saturday in a 13-year-old girl who recently returned from Singapore. State television said the girl was taken to Yangon General Hospital on Friday and is being held in isolation.

The report did not provide details about her condition. The other 91 passengers who arrived on her flight are being monitored by the Health Ministry.

New Zealand, meanwhile, raised its tally of confirmed swine flu cases to 507.
Deputy Director of Public Health Darren Hunt said Saturday the country's toll was probably higher since officials are no longer conducting lab tests on all suspected cases, and most people recover from the predominantly mild flu before seeking medical attention.

In Hong Kong, the government confirmed 33 new cases, taking the city's total to 629. There have been no reports of deaths related to the virus in the territory. – AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Schools to re-open as scheduled despite H1N1 situation

By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 22 June 2009 1823 hrs

Khaw Boon Wan

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

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Companies urged to take extra steps to reduce H1N1 spread

By Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 19 June 2009 2118 hrs

Temperature screening at Singapore hospital

SINGAPORE: Companies could do well to start making contingency plans to deal with staff contracting Influenza A (H1N1), if they have not done so already.

The Health Ministry said some recent imported H1N1 cases had engaged in extensive community activities like going to work or shopping.

While the Health Ministry's current practice is to quarantine only confirmed cases in hospital, at least one organisation here is taking added precaution.

It has made it mandatory for staffs who have travelled to affected countries to home quarantine themselves, even if they do not show any symptoms of the virus.

The current Health Ministry guideline on Influenza A (H1N1) is quite clear. If you've just come back from a country that is close to or has sustained H1N1 community transmission, do not engage in mass activities, come forward for screening and isolation, but only when you develop flu-like symptoms.

The problem with the H1N1 virus is that in some victims, there are hardly any symptoms like fever.

Organisations Channel NewsAsia contacted all follow the ministry's guideline.
The Nanyang Technological University, for example, requires staffs who have come back from affected countries to conduct self temperature checks for seven days upon return.

But one organisation has gone a step further.

Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) has asked staff to stay away from work for seven days upon return from an affected country, even if the employee is well.

An over-reaction, perhaps? Not quite, it said.

SHRI's executive director, David Ang, said: "Let's take the precaution, because we do not know very much about this disease and we do not want to take that additional risk of having our other fellow colleagues being affected by the disease and therefore it will create a chain reaction."

He said the cost of a single staff member infecting the rest of his colleagues far outweighs whatever business continuity plan a company needs to put in place.
And here's another enlightened HR approach - its staff do not need to use their personal leave should they ever need to be quarantined.

Mr Ang said: "Employees who have very limited amount of leave, we try to see how we can save the leave entitlement or the consumption of such leave and see to what extent we can organise our work so that he or she can work from home."

Programme coordinator Elaine Lau, 34, was one such employee who benefited from the seven-day free pass after returning from Hong Kong.

She spent seven days at home after coming back from Hong Kong when the first H1N1 case was discovered there in April.

She said: "I'm quite fortunate, because my company does not deduct my leave and let us have the flexibility to work from home."

Another SHRI employee is currently on the seven-day free pass after returning from Australia.

Different companies have different policies.

Many of those Channel NewsAsia spoke to said they require their staff to use their own personal leave to offset the quarantine period, if they travel to affected countries.

Some companies, though, would allow staff to use their hospitalisation leave if the travel was for business.

A recent survey released by HR consultants Mercer said that despite the threat of the H1N1 virus, nearly half of the more than 400 companies polled worldwide said they do not have proper HR policies for health-related emergencies.

In Singapore, SHRI has conducted a sharing session with some 70 HR representatives from local companies and multi-national organisations on how to deal with H1N1.

Mr Ang said areas HR practitioners have to be mindful of include assuring staff that they will be taken care of, increasing insurance coverage and setting guidelines for work-related travel.

Another session on business continuity plans will be conducted soon.

- CNA/ir

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.