SARS update
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sars" is my fav subject...anymore input?...
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12 deaths......................
tsk tsk tsk~ -
what about it?
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IMH got suspected cases...
izzit comfirm liao??? -
No new updates from Singapore Tourism Board as at 13 May
To view more details, please click on:
http://www.stb.com.sg/sars/index.stm
Ministry of Health
http://www.gov.sg/moh/sars/index.html
ALTERNATIVE QUARANTINE FACILITIES
From 12th May 2003 onwards, Singaporeans under Home Quarantine Orders (HQOs) can choose to serve their quarantine at the government chalets at Loyang instead of at home, if they wish.
The purpose of offering these alternative quarantine facilities is to help those serving HQOs, by allowing their family members to go about their normal routine. This alternative will benefit individuals serving HQOs who wish to be isolated from their families, for instance, to allow their children to continue going to school. Currently, all children who are below 18 years of age and are staying in the same household as individuals serving HQOs are also quarantined and not allowed to go to school. Individuals who are discharged from hospital and need to be quarantined at home may also find these facilities useful.
These alternative facilities will be offered when people are given notice to serve HQOs. Those who are interested can call the MOH hotline (1-800-333-9999) to make a request. The target is to process each request before the next check-in time (either 10am or 4pm). Once the requests are processed, City-Cabs or arranged transportation will be used to ferry the people either from hospital or from home. Temperature checks will be taken before the people leave from hospital or from home.
Located in Pasir Ris, Loyang chalets consist of 38 units, each with 2-4 bedrooms. Each unit (100 ? 270 sq m) is furnished and fitted out with amenities like a television, telephone, refrigerator, airpot and microwave. All bedrooms are air-conditioned. Each person will have a bedroom; the common amenities within a chalet will be shared. The subsidised rate is $25 per person per day for food and lodging. CISCO will do the daily checks on HQO persons at the chalets. No visitors will be allowed.
Sars kit going out to cabbies so they can take their own temperatures, now that assured commuters are taking cabs again
THE taxi industry has reached a turning point in its fight against Sars.
Besides better takings, a sign that commuters are more confident about taking taxis, cabbies will, from next week, take their own temperatures instead of trooping daily to fever-checking kiosks.
The turn of events was noted yesterday by Minister of State (Transport and Health) Balaji Sadasivan as well as Mr Seng Han Thong, who heads the Taxi Industry Task Force, at the launch of a Sars kit for cabbies.
Dr Balaji said: 'Confidence has returned and things are normalising.'
Mr Seng, whose task force is made up of taxi companies and operators' associations, said: 'We've reached a turning point. The drivers are confident to drive and their passengers are confident to take their taxis.'
Cabbies were hit hard a month ago when news broke on April 17 of a cabby being infected by the Sars virus.
On the same day, representatives of the operators' associations of Comfort, CityCab and Tibs Taxis went into a huddle with Mr Seng, from 4 pm to midnight, to work out the logistics of setting up fever-checking stations.
'Fever-free' stickers were hurriedly printed and collected from the printer at 4 am the following day. By 6 am, 12 fever-checking kiosks were set up islandwide.
About 5,000 fever checks were done that day. The number has increased to 20,000 daily, showing that cabbies are more aware of the need to monitor their temperatures, said Mr Seng, who is an MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC.
'So we are moving on to the next phase where cabbies do their own temperature checks and exercise their own responsibility, and drive only when they are okay.'
The fever checks, conducted by about 40 cabbies daily, will end on May 27.
The Sars kit, which will go out to cabbies from Monday, contains two thermometers - one for the cabby and the other for the relief driver - a bottle of hand disinfectant, alcohol wipes and protective masks.
Singapore Pools donated the kits, which cost $518,000 in total. Cabbies will also receive boxes of tissues donated by tissue paper supplier Tipex Trading.
World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/travel2003_05_12/en/ -
Saw on the news last night abt i think 30 ppl from woodbridge hospital(patients n staff) kena fever together... anyone got update? Is it SARS?
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Suspect Cases
There were no new suspect cases admitted today.
SINGAPORE may yet be declared Sars-free by Sunday.
Early test results for some of the patients and health-care workers from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), who are down with fever, indicate they have caught a virulent strain of the flu bug, and not the Sars virus
Five staff members have already been discharged from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), as they have had no fever for more than 48 hours.
But it is too early to start chilling the champagne, because it will take at least 48 hours for additional testing to confirm that IMH is Sars-free.
Until then, the Health Ministry will treat the cluster of cases at Singapore's main mental hospital as a Sars outbreak.
The outbreak at IMH started with one patient running a temperature on May 7. As more patients and staff fell ill, they were moved to TTSH and the institute stopped admissions and outpatient and emergency services.
Yesterday, the ministry said 30 patients and 13 staff members remain warded in TTSH.
Health authorities initially feared a breach of Singapore's ring-fence strategy and that a new wave of infections could be spreading.
But yesterday's news changes things. Samples taken from 15 people in the IMH cluster were negative for the coronavirus.
In addition, scientists found the influenza B virus in three of five people tested for it.
Influenza B does not spread as easily as the A virus, the usual cause of flu epidemics and pandemics, but it can be as deadly.
Like Sars, it is spread by droplets. Symptoms are highly similar: fever, muscle ache, headache, cough and shortness of breath.
But doctors say it is more infectious than Sars. And it is not unusual for it to spread in hospitals.
So there is growing optimism on the part of health authorities that an IMH Sars cluster may be a false alarm.
There was some hint of this in the World Health Organisation statement on Wednesday. It said its team in Singapore reported 'some signs that patients in the cluster, many of whom are elderly, may be ill from causes other than Sars'.
And yesterday, a cautiously optimistic Sars combat team chief, Mr Khaw Boon Wan, said: 'A few of the cases are influenza but so long as there's one which is Sars, then to me, it's a Sarscluster.'
'Hopefully, IMH is a false alarm. If it turns out to be influenza, then we have a lucky break here, but that doesn't mean the end of the battle. We must maintain vigilance,' he said.
If confirmed that the cluster is not Sars, Singapore resumes its 20-day countdown to being officially Sars-free on Sunday. The last infection occured on April 27.
Singapore will then join Vietnam and Canada, both having had no local transmissions for two incubation periods of 10 days, the most important of several requirements set by WHO.
Close to 8,000 people worldwide have been infected - 600 have died. In Singapore, the tally remains at 205 cases.
So far 157 have recovered and 28 have died. Another 19 are in hospital, seven in intensive care.
Institute of Mental Health (IMH)
There are currently 30 inpatients and 13 staff from IMH warded in TTSH for observation of fever. They are all in stable condition. The patients are from Wards 64, 65, 35 and 50B. 5 staff have been discharged today as they have had no fever for more than 48 hours.
So far, PCR testing for coronavirus has been negative in samples taken from 15 patients, including the 5 staff who were discharged today. Of 5 patients who were tested, 3 were positive for influenza B virus. As investigations are still in progress, the IMH cluster will continue to be managed as a SARS outbreak.
Travel Advisory
MOH urges the public to heed the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s advice to postpone travel to Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangdong, Shanxi, and Taipei until another time
World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/archive/2003_05_15/en/
Update 56 - Situation in China, new WHO guidelines on blood safety, guidance for mass gatherings
Situation in China
Chinese authorities have today reported 52 new probable cases and 4 deaths, bringing the cumulative total in mainland China to 5163 probable cases and 271 deaths.
Most new cases were reported in Beijing (27), Shanxi (7), and Hebei (6). The 4 new deaths were reported in Beijing (1), Hebei (1), Inner Mongolia (1), and Tianjin (1).
The Chinese Ministry of Health is now providing the dates when the most recent probable and suspect cases were reported. New cases continue to be reported in all provinces.
The joint Ministry of Health-WHO team in Guangxi will soon complete its mission. Team members report that some probable cases may have been misclassified as suspect cases, though the number of such cases is expected to be small. Based on visits and a review of data, the team is of the view that large scale unreported transmission is not occurring in the province.
New guidelines on blood safety
WHO has today issued a series of recommendations as precautionary principles to address the theoretical risk that SARS might be transmitted through the transfusion of labile blood products. WHO is stressing that the recommended measures are precautionary.
Update on cases and countries
As of today, a cumulative total of 7699 probable cases and 598 deaths have been reported from 29 countries. This represents an increase of 85 new cases and 11 deaths compared with yesterday. The new deaths occurred in China (4) and Hong Kong SAR (7).
Taiwan, China reported 26 new cases and no new deaths today, bringing the cumulative total to 264 probable cases and 30 deaths. Taiwan now ranks just below mainland China in the number of new cases reported since yesterday. Hong Kong SAR reported 5 new probable cases and Singapore reported no new probable cases today. -
Singapore to KL: Come, See Sars Checks
SINGAPORE has nothing to hide in its Sars screening of travellers to Malaysia and has invited Kuala Lumpur to station its officials at checkpoints here and judge for themselves.
The Home Affairs Ministry (MHA) revealed yesterday that the invitation was extended to Malaysia on Saturday.
The ministry also released a list of 56 cases that the Malaysian media had claimed were 'exported' there by Singapore.
Of that total, 33 turned out to be either people suffering from non-Sars illnesses or individuals with no contact history here.
Singapore's Health Ministry is still investigating two cases currently.
The Government has written to Malaysia's Health Ministry for more information on the rest, but has not received a reply.
The MHA statement pointed out that the Health Ministry here had been prompt in checking and providing information on all cases reported by Malaysia.
The statement marked Singapore's most comprehensive response so far to repeated Malaysian allegations that people with Sars symptoms were being allowed to slip across the border.
It said that Mr Tan Guong Ching, Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs, wrote to Datuk Alias Ali, secretary-general of Malaysia's Ministry of Health, on May 24.
Mr Tan suggested that the best way to overcome Malaysia's doubts over Singapore's screening procedures was for the two countries to station officials at each other's checkpoints, to observe how the checks were being done.
He said that if Malaysia could not accept Singapore officials at its checkpoints now, 'Singapore would understand but would still welcome Malaysian officials to be stationed at Singapore's checkpoints to observe these screening procedures'.
Mr Tan wrote in his capacity as chairman of the Sars executive group, which comprises top civil servants who report to the ministers during emergencies.
He rebutted recent charges that Singapore had not been forthcoming with information on suspected Sars cases referred to it by the Malaysian authorities.
He enclosed a table of the 56 cases reported in April and May by the Malaysian media and authorities as allegedly originating in the Republic.
Throughout April, it was Singapore's Health Ministry that followed up on the Malaysian media reports by writing to Malaysia's health authorities seeking information.
'Malaysia only pro-actively provided information from May 2 onwards,' MHA noted.
In his letter to Datuk Alias, Mr Tan also noted that Singapore had written to the Malaysian newspapers over at least nine of the cases. But only two of its replies had been published as of May 24.
He also suggested that Datuk Alias call or e-mail him if Malaysia had any difficulties on the ground and he would address any concerns that the Malaysian officials might have.
And he expressed the hope that officials from both sides could take the opportunity of the next bilateral meeting on Sars, slated for June 6, to clarify any doubts and differences.
This was because 'recriminations aired publicly do not help to resolve these issues', MHA said.
Given the seriousness of the Sars threat to the entire region, both countries should 'cooperate and work harmoniously to fight the disease', it added.
World Health Organization
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2003_05_29/en/
Situation in China
China has today reported 3 new probable SARS cases, all in Beijing. All 3 patients had previously been classified as suspect cases and were already hospitalized.
WHO is cautiously optimistic that outbreaks in mainland China are being brought under control in provinces with good surveillance and reporting systems and good infection control in hospitals.
WHO officials in China report that the use of air conditioning in public places is being discontinued in an effort to prevent the further spread of SARS. WHO has no evidence to date that air-conditioning could play a role in spreading the SARS virus. All evidence indicates that the predominant mode of spread is through close person-to-person contact with droplets expelled when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
For the purpose of infection control, and exclusively in hospital settings, WHO does recommend turning off air-conditioning and opening windows to provide ventilation. This option is recommended only when the preferred options of negative pressure rooms or an independent air supply and exhaust system cannot be met.
A WHO expert who recently assessed the SARS situation in Shanghai reports that the city has taken many steps to stem the spread of SARS. While the screening of air passengers is progressing well, implementation of a similar level of screening at Shanghai�fs bus and railway stations is proving logistically more difficult. Local authorities are also implementing numerous temperature checks; these may occasionally be performed at an excessive frequency.
WHO teams in China are still investigating how best to implement monitoring procedures in the country�fs rural areas. Local officials are prepared to adopt a community-based surveillance system. However, exactly which measures will prove most effective remains to be determined. WHO teams hope to visit other SARS �ghot spots�h in China, such as Tianjin and Shanxi.
Update on cases and countries
As of today, a cumulative total of 8295 cases with 750 deaths has been reported from 28 countries. This represents an increase of 17 new cases and 5 new deaths compared with yesterday. The new deaths occurred in China (2) and Hong Kong SAR (3).