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SINGAPORE: The Health Ministry (MOH) has ordered another 300,000 doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine from Australian drug manufacturer CSL. The ministry had earlier secured a million doses for Singapore.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with MediaCorp on Thursday, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said the additional doses will arrive next month.
"My big worry is when school reopens next month and if some of these students who were holidaying in the north were infected, then they'll start to spread to their classmates," he said.
"You'll have fever clusters, forcing the schools to have to close down some classes or even the entire school. Once news like that spread, I expect parents will begin to scramble to get vaccination."
So far, more than 900,000 of the one million doses of H1N1 vaccine have arrived in Singapore. Of these, 400,000 doses have been taken up. This leaves some 500,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine available in the market.
While it seems there is plenty to go around for now, Mr Khaw pointed out that there are other factors to consider.
"Of the 200,000 doses set aside for frontline staff, only 70,000 were used up. This means there's another 130,000 frontline staff who would need to be protected if the virus were to become more serious," he said.
After much discussion, MOH said it decided to stock up on vaccines from Australia due to the ease of use.
It also hopes travellers during the holiday season will vaccinate themselves against the H1N1 flu virus, especially for those who are in the high-risk category.
- CNA/so
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