Singapore is lagging in flu preparedness.

Singapore is lagging in flu pandemic preparedness, compared to Britain. This article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/28/swine-flu-mexico-scotland

...shows that the UK has 33 million courses of anti-influenza medication stockpiled for a pandemic. That is enough to treat 55% of the population. As I noted, however, in my previous article, Singapore only has enough drugs to treat 10% of the population. Clearly, Singapore seems to care less for its people than the UK does, for its.

Presumably, Singapore's relative lack of drug defenses against flu are due to a cost saving mentality: they would rather not overspend on something that may never be used, is how I think, they "think". Of course, they haven't given much to thought to what would happen if they have grossly underestimated treatment needs in the event of a pandemic (which they have...since in a true pandemic, treatment would most probably be needed for greater than 10% of a population. Western Samoa, for instance, showed 90% infection, in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.)

So, Singaporeans can be happy in the knowledge that their government prefers to save money, rather than save lives. You can all rest assured that the national reserves will be there when you need them. The only problem is, since they have saved so much money on drugs never bought, you might not be there to enjoy the national reserves when the day they come to be needed.

Seriously, though, I think more forethought should be given to worst case scenarios - and less to how to cut costs and be minimalist about investing in the health of the nation. Should Singapore ever truly underestimate a pandemic, the nation might not survive in its former state. Britain has clearly thought of these worst case scenarios and has enough drugs on hand to treat over half the population. If Britain can do it, why hasn't Singapore?

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