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【社会人文】新加坡采取措施应对禽流感
By Yvonne Yong | Posted: 09 October 2006 1517 hrs
SINGAPORE: Three key changes are being made to Singapore’s response to a possible bird flu pandemic, based on lessons learnt from the preparedness exercises Sparrowhawk 1 and 2 conducted earlier this year.
Speaking at a flu pandemic training session for Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) Minister of State for Health Heng Chee How said the first main area of improvement is the line between Government polyclinics and GPs.
“Initially, the plan was to centralise treatment at the 18 polyclinics. But we also recognise that most Singaporeans consult their family doctors in the private sector for acute illnesses like influenza...In Sparrowhawk, we validated the feasibility of utilising GPs to continue to serve the population. With some coordination we will be able to organise more than 1000 GP Clinics to provide primary care to the community”.
Also reviewed is the work of public and private hospitals in an outbreak. Previously, Restructured Hospitals were to manage all flu patients who required hospitalised care, while non-flu patients would be referred to Private Hospitals. But as Mr Heng pointed out, “It would be very difficult to fully effectively segregate such cases in a pandemic. Hence, hospitals, both public and private will need to be prepared to manage both”.
Thirdly, all hospitals are to have a dedicated group of staff or an ‘infection control response team’. According to Mr Heng, “Sparrowhawk highlighted that it is impractical to expect that all staff have the same level of readiness and training and are able to sustain a high level of readiness over a prolonged period of time…The key lesson is for hospitals to maintain and roster a team of dedicated Health Care Workers who are very well versed with the handling of infectious cases”.
Mr Heng also talked about the three-pronged or ‘3P’ approach involving the Public, Private and People sectors in the event of a pandemic. “The fight against the flu pandemic requires a ‘whole of Singapore’ approach to ensure that Singapore is ready should a flu pandemic hit…I am heartened to see that such inter-agency, cross sector collaboration is well in place…and I am pleased to report that our border agencies, healthcare institutions and security agencies are ready”.
He also stressed the importance of continued training and practical exercises to prepare against bird flu, rather than just planning on paper and ‘hoping the telephone numbers will still work when they are actually needed’.
On the H5N1 outbreak, Mr Heng says, “So far we have crossed the first stage – bird to bird transmission- and also the second – bird to man…It is this third stage – man to man – that can be very serious”.
In June this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported evidence of the first human-to-human spread in Indonesia, where a child who was thought to have come into contact with infected poultry, infected his father.
It was a confirmed human to human transmission, but no further spread outside of the exposed family was documented or suspected.
To date, the H5N1 virus does not infect humans easily, and it is very difficult for the virus to spread from person to person.
But all influenza viruses have the ability to change, and scientists are concerned that the H5N1 virus could mutate, infect humans and spread easily between them, thus causing a worldwide outbreak of the disease.
Currently there is no commercially available vaccine to protect humans against the H5N1 virus which has affected 251 people with 147 deaths in ten countries.
Should a pandemic hit Singapore, the Ministry of Health (MOH) says it will be able to vaccinate the entire population, 4-6 months after the new flu strain is confirmed.
Lim Kok Peng, Deputy Director for Contingency and Scenario Planning, MOH, on obtaining the vaccine, says “We are not first in line, but we are not last.”
The MOH also predicts that any outbreak would enter Singapore from beyond its borders and could reach Singapore within days or weeks of emerging, with two or more waves lasting about six weeks each, in the same year.
The nation will rely on Tamiflu as a form of prevention of the spread while a new vaccine is being developed, but even this will face increased resistance.
According to the MOH, an outbreak of the bird flu will be more infectious than SARS with an incubation of seven days.
It is estimated that some 11,000 people in Singapore could be hospitalised during the first wave of the outbreak, should it occur. 我认领了,后天交稿. 新加坡为了应对可能到来的禽流感的流行，在今年年初的检验应对禽流感疫情的准备情况的演习“麻雀一号”和“麻雀二号”中所得到的教训的基础上作了三项重要的改变措施。
在一个非官方福利组织的应对流感的训练会议上，国家卫生部长王志豪说第一个主要改进的方面是政府综合医院和私人医生方面的联系。
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-01-06 05:14
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