Stay on guard for second wave of H1N1 pandemic

2009/11/05

KUALA LUMPUR: Influenza A (H1N1) in Malaysia peaked in July and August, and since September the number of new infections has dropped.

However, the head of Sungai Buloh Hospital's Department of Medicine, Dr Christopher Lee Kwok Choong, cautioned Malaysians that the number of cases of H1N1 was creeping up in the northern hemisphere, especially in the United States and Britain, and this could be the second wave.

"The second wave would be more serious than the primary wave," said Dr Lee.

"We now need to be more vigilant and step up our surveillance to be ready to quickly reactivate our national influenza pandemic preparedness plan, which has to be more robust," he said on the NSTLive online chat yesterday.

He said Malaysia must be ready for the second wave of the influenza as every pandemic in the last century occurred in multiple waves and the current H1N1 pandemic was not expected to be different.

"Measures to prepare for the second wave have been put in place by the Health Ministry, including the training of our colleagues in the private sector."

Dr Lee said clinics nationwide were monitoring daily for any sudden increase in patients coming in with influenza-like illnesses and whether throat swabs were showing signs of virus mutation.

He said the peculiar thing about the influenza A pandemic was that young people appeared more likely to be infected than those above the age of 65, who tended to catch the seasonal influenza.

Replying to a question from a reader about the anti-viral drug tamiflu, which is said to cause hallucination, he said that although there were reports to this effect, the drug was generally safe.

However, he reminded Malaysians not to take the drug thinking it could prevent infection.

Those who needed the drug were people with serious symptoms and those with co-morbidities such as diabetes, heart disease, pregnancy and obesity.

As for the H1N1 vaccine, Dr Lee said there was a worldwide shortage that was expected to continue for the next four to six months.

Hence, he added, it is important for countries to prioritise who among the population would be the recipients of the vaccine.

In Malaysia, the strategy was to vaccinate all the service frontliners, especially healthcare workers, since it was expecting to get only 400,000 doses initially.

"I am certain this vaccine strategy will evolve during the course of the pandemic as the vaccine supply improves," he said.

Dr Lee said the number of deaths from H1N1 in the country was 77 and of late there were very few new cases of hospitalisation.

"This pattern is consistent with the number of people with influenza-like illnesses at our out-patient clinics," he added.

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