The second external events that impacted the health and well-being of Singaporeans is business. Though the business here is relatively moderate, compared to Sars 2003. Business continuity consultants, health care providers and medical products makers appear to be the biggest gainers from the outbreak. Companies related to the tourism and hospitality sectors were badly affected.







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The first external event that have impacted Singapore health and well-being is a mix of several strains of the flu virus. Other H1N1 strains already infect humans every year, and their genes have origainated from swine, human and avian sources. All H1N1 virus have a hybrid virus with different origins is not a new finding.
When the hybrid virus change significantly from current strains, the impact on transmissibility and virulence cannot always be predicted, and we need to link the genetic changes to what we observe in the community and in the affected individuals. For H1N1, more epidemiological studies will be needed to better define how easily is spreads or whether it causes more severe disease. Scientists are interested in the hybrid nature of H1N1 because it helps them to track its spread and origin more easily.


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H1N1 flu alert status has been stepped down from DORSCON yellow to DORSCON green with effect from 12 Feb 2010.

The global H1N1 activity has declined in most areas though some areas continue to have evidence of active but declining transmission.

In addition, H1N1 has generally been observed to cause mild infection in the majority of cases, and there has been no increase in the virulence of the virus since it was first reported in April 2009.

An indian mother and her son wear masks as they stand in a queue at the H1N1 swine flu virus centre test centre at The Government Chest Hospital in Hyderabad on August 11, 2009.

The virus isolated from patients in the United States was found to be made up of genetic elements from four different flu viruses – North American swine influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza, and swine influenza virus typically found in Asia and Europe – "an unusually mongrelised mix of genetic sequences.
Preliminary genetic characterization found that the hemagglutini (HA) gene was similar to that of swine flu viruses present in U.S. pigs since 1999, but the neuraminidase (NA) and matrix protein (M) genes resembled versions present in European swine flu isolates. The six genes from American swine flu are themselves mixtures of swine flu, bird flu, and human flu viruses.While viruses with this genetic makeup had not previously been found to be circulating in humans or pigs, there is no formal national surveillance system to determine what viruses are circulating in pigs in the U.S.

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♥Patricia
♥Keerthana
♥Darshiini
♥Dion

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