SINGAPORE: The Republic must assume that the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) can and will enter the country, given its inter-connectivity and how neighbours such as Malaysia and the Philippines have had MERS cases, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday (Jun 11).
Speaking to the media during a visit to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), Mr Lee said: “For us it’s a matter of time, and for us, I wanted to be quite sure that our medical facilities our medical staff, the hospitals, the whole team are ready and they know how to deal with it. They don’t fumble and we can contain it, and then put a stop to the disease in Singapore as quickly as we can.”
TTSH has been designated by Singapore’s Health Ministry to be the hospital for MERS-CoV patient cases since the virus was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
South Korea reported its 10th fatality and 14 new MERS cases on Thursday. The outbreak is the second largest in the world, after the Middle East.
About 40,000 travellers, including returning Singaporeans, come from Korea to Singapore each month. And for families in the island-state, the June school holidays are a popular time to visit the country. Given these exchanges and the fact that Singapore sees many arrivals from the Middle East, Mr Lee said it must assume that the MERS virus can and will reach its shores.
PUBLIC NEEDS TO KNOW HOW TO RESPOND
The Singapore public also needs to know how to respond, Mr Lee added. If one has travelled and feels unwell, or displays flu symptoms, these individuals should take it seriously and visit the hospital to get checked, he said.
If there were to be MERS cases in the country, Singaporeans should not get into a panic, but know that the country is prepared and what can be done, he said.
Mr Lee said: “We don’t want to get into a panic and we don’t have to if we are well prepared. So I came to see that the medical side are well prepared, which I think they are. They gave me a good briefing and they showed me the facilities they have set up … and how they will respond – the gear, the drills, and not just this hospital, but other hospitals too.
“But that’s only half of it, the other half is to make sure that Singaporeans know this is a problem which can affect us. We read about it in the newspapers everyday, I read about it in the newspapers everyday. But the impression I would get if I were reading the newspapers is that this is still over there and not over here.
“And yes, the Middle East is far away, South Korea is another country, we don’t want to send our children there on a school trip, if we are in an uncertain situation. But we have to bring it home that it could happen here and we have to be ready.”
TTSH HAS ‘ROBUST’ PREPAREDNESS PLAN
Tan Tock Seng Hospital said it has seen about 180 suspected MERS cases over the past three years. None have tested positive for the virus.
TTSH said it has a robust preparedness plan to handle global pandemic threats, along with the dedicated facilities.
The hospital has started screening for suspect cases since 2012. It said all suspected and confirmed cases at the hospital will be isolated and managed under strict airborne infection control precautions.
It added that processes are in place at the hospital’s Emergency Department, to evaluate and screen patients with clinical signs of respiratory illnesses and a travel history to suspected regions. If suspected, patients are managed separately with masks and placed in isolation rooms for further medical consultation.
If needed, they will then be admitted into designated isolation wards at the Communicable Diseases Centre (CDC).
And while there is still no cure for the virus, the hospital said that providing the best supportive measures will be the priority for a confirmed MERS patient.
Professor Leo Yee Sin, director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology at TTSH, said: “The first principle would be to make sure the patient is provided with the best supportive measures, which means that we make sure that their respiratory functions are well taken care of.
“If there is any other collateral damage to other organs, we take care of that as well. So effectively supportive treatment. However, we are also looking very closely to the potential new kind of untested treatment that could have been available outside.”
The hospital said it has about 100 isolation beds ready should there be an outbreak. Resources can also be ramped up if the situation escalates.
On Tuesday, Singapore also started temperature screening at air checkpoints for travellers arriving from South Korea.
To date, no case of MERS-CoV has been reported in Singapore. But the Health Ministry has previously said the possibility of an imported case in the Republic cannot be ruled out given today’s globalised travel patterns.