MOH should just let H1N1 spread naturally through

From: "kingkong"
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:40:47 +0800
Local: Thurs, Jun 18 2009 8:40 am
Subject: MOH H1N1 strategy

To be honest, Singapore MOH should just let H1N1 spread naturally through
Singapore community.

In UK, the health authorities are not even isolating H1N1 patients, they
just treat them as normal flu patients and sent them back home. People might
be surprise or even laugh at the UK health authorities but it is actually
the most sensible and logical thing to do. This is because 99% of these H1N1
patients require no hospitalization and most patients recovered normally
after few days of bed and rest.

The reality is if all H1N1 flu patients need to be isolated similar to what
Singapore MOH is doing, they would run out of hospital beds in no time.

Likewise in US, Mexico or Australia, they don't even bother to count H1N1
patients anymore and it consumes too much manpower, not to mention their
limited health budgets.

Apart from closing Singapore kindergartens, childcare centres and govt
schools for a period of 7 to 10 days after their school holidays,
Singaporean should just learn to live with H1N1 flu just like they learn to
live with other diseases, such as Hand Foot and Mouth disease or Dengue
fever.

Ironically, in Hong Kong and Japan, even after the govt decided to close
these schools due to H1N1 fear, these students now flock to Hong Kong
Disneyland, Karaoke bars, shopping centres and other crowded places.

That means if these students do not catch H1N1 flu in schools, they would
eventually catch it somewhere else.

At the end of day, Singaporean will catch it sooner or later, and during the
present economic recession, this is probably the best time to do so.