Important Notices (Passenger's Information)

Influenza A (H1N1) Infection - Information Alert

11 May 2009

INFORMATION ALERT

WORLD – 11 May 2009, 30 countries have officially reported 4694 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infection.

Mexico has reported 1626 laboratory confirmed human cases of infection, including 48 deaths. The United States has reported 2532 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death. Costa Rica has reported eight laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with NO deaths –
Argentina (1), Australia (1), Austria (1), Brazil (8), China (2, comprising 1 in China, Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region, and 1 in mainland China), Colombia (3), Denmark (1),
El Salvador (4), France (13), Germany (11), Guatemala (1), Ireland (1), Israel (7), Italy (9),
Japan (4), Netherlands (3), New Zealand (7), Norway (2), Panama (15), Poland (1),
Portugal (1), Republic of Korea (3), Spain (95), Sweden (2), Switzerland (1) and the United
Kingdom (47).

SINGAPORE – Singapore is at DORSCON Yellow alert status. While community measures such as temperature screening at workplaces, schools, buildings and events have been relaxed, tighter restrictions at healthcare institutions will remain for the time being. We seek the public’s understanding on the need for temperature screening of all visitors at healthcare institutions and restriction of hospital visitors to 2 per patient at any one time.

Members of the public are strongly advised to exercise caution over travel to affected areas.
In the event that travel is unavoidable, the public is advised to take precautionary measures
such as avoiding crowded areas and maintaining high standards of personal hygiene at all
times. However, if you are unwell with fever and cough but have no travel history to affected
areas, please see a doctor and stay at home.

In this issue of the advisory, we have included information on how you can keep yourself
healthy in order to avoid the flu bug through simple steps such as maintaining a balanced
diet and ample exercise.

Warmest regards,

Freme Travel Services / Raffles Medical Group
(Click here for Raffles Hospital HealthScreening Packages)

Keep Yourself Healthy to Avoid the Flu Bug

Diet

A balanced diet is necessary to boost your immune system and keep you healthy during this period of time.

Singapore Food Pyramid

General principles would be to:

• Reduce intake of any fried and oily food
• Reduce intake of high salt diet
• Reduce intake of high sugar content diet
• Increase intake of fibres in terms of fruits and vegetables as they also contain loads of vitamins and antioxidants
• Eat regular meals
• Increase intake of fluids daily of about 1.5 to 2 litres

Exercise

• Regular exercise is necessary to maintain health
• Principle to remember if FITT, Frequency, Intensity, Timing and Type Frequency
• Recommended to exercise 3 to 5 times each week

Intensity

• About 70-80% maximum heart rate (MHR)
• MHR is calculated roughly by 220 – (your age)
• If you have not exercise for a long time, start with a aim for 40-50% of MHR and slowly build up over time
• If you have chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes etc it would be good for you to speak to your doctor prior commencing the exercise

Timing

• Each exercise period should be about 30-45 minutes.

This can be broken down to: -
• 10 minutes of warming up and stretching
• 20-30 minutes of exercise proper
• 10 minutes of cooling down

Type

• For warming up it should involve stretching and callisthenic exercise such sit ups
• Exercise proper should be aerobic type exercise such as brisk walking, jogging etc
• Cooling down should be mainly stretching and deep breathing exercises

 

 

Other Useful Lifestyle Tips

Taking into consideration the current flu epidemic, you should:
• Avoid exercise in crowded and enclosed areas such as a gym
• Avoid exercise if you experience flu symptoms or fever
• Ensure adequate fluid intake
• Know your body, if you are tired that day, do not push your body to do strenuous exercise (such as jogging) as you will depress for your body immunity rather than strengthening it. You may want to do some walking instead.
• Avoid exercise in the heat of the day
• At the peak of the epidemic, you may wish to avoid swimming as there is a higher risk of contracting the flu virus through contaminated water

Adequate Rest and Stress Management
• Stress can depress body immune system
• When the immune system is depressed, there is a higher risk of it succumbing to the flu
bug
• Adequate rest should be about 6-8 hours of sleep a day
• Inadequate stress management can also lead to poor duration and quality of sleep
• Regular exercise can help with stress management
• Proper time management and prioritising of work will also help to reduce work stress
• You should seek professional help if you are unable to cope with the stress or if you
experience poor sleep for long duration of time

Smoking
• Smoking is related to chronic coughing and wheezing among adults and children and chronic bronchitis and emphysema among adults
• Smokers are more likely than non smokers to have upper and lower respiratory tract infections, possibly because smoking suppresses immune function
• It will never be a better time to quit smoking than now

Keep yourself healthy!