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SINGAPORE: The H1N1 virus infection seems to be tapering off, with the latest figures showing a decrease in the proportion of patients at polyclinics, GP clinics and hospitals detected with the H1N1 virus - 42 per cent from about 50 per cent previously.
But doctors caution the need to remain vigilant as the virus is still killing people.
Two more H1N1-related deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 15 in Singapore.
The latest victims of H1N1 infections are a 53-year-old man, who died on August 29 and a 70-year-old woman, who died on August 30 - both of whom had underlying medical conditions, including diabetes and high blood pressure.
The Singapore Medical Association, which represents a majority of medical practitioners in both the private and public sector, said that going forward, the challenge for its members remains identifying patients whose condition will become worse, so they can be treated earlier.
"Most of the cases so far are mild, as you know, but there are some cases that have turned bad and who need to be hospitalised and who need to be in intensive care," said Dr Chong Yeh Woei, president of Singapore Medical Association.
Drug companies say a vaccine should be available by October.
"The paramount thing that we want to be sure about is the safety and the other thing is that if we have decided that it's safe, then who will get it first. I believe the thinking now is that the children will be the first to benefit from the vaccine if it's found to be safe," Dr Chong added.
So far there have been no reports of the virus mutating to a more virulent form, although it has been found in birds recently. But whether mutation of the virus may render the vaccine ineffective remains uncertain.
With community transmission occurring for some time, experts say that there should already be some kind of herd immunity among the people. But despite that, the Ministry of Health says that it will order enough vaccine for the entire population.
Dr Chong expressed another concern - fatigue among the doctors and nurses in dealing with the virus, especially with reports that a second wave of infections would happen soon.
He said: "Going ahead, it's been quite some time since the pandemic has started and we are concerned about fatigue that has set in and the stress level that has gone up, having to be in full PPE and having to deal with the pandemic.
"We learnt this lesson from SARS. We remembered that we were very stressed, in particular during SARS and only when we stood down, the stress hit all of us and we felt the post-traumatic stress; and that is one of the challenges going ahead. So we are very, very concerned for our members and their staff."
The Ministry of Health is monitoring the flu situation in Singapore, under the influenza biosurveillance programme, to identify the strains of flu virus circulating in the community.
Latest data showed the proportion of Influenza A (H1N1-2009) detected among patients with influenza-like illness seen at polyclinics, GP clinics and hospitals, in E-week 33 (August 16-22), is 42 per cent.
- CNA/sc
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