AVIAN FLU AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES (Policy review and free treatment)

Column No : 2123

AVIAN FLU AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

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(Policy review and free treatment): **

6.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Health with the heightened concern worldwide over the spread of infectious diseases and a possible outbreak of a bird flu pandemic, whether the Ministry will review its policy not to provide free treatment for infectious diseases.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: The Ministry will continue to provide free treatment for infectious diseases which are public health threats. These include hospitalisation for cholera in the acute stage and outpatient treatment for tuberculosis (TB) under the national programme administered by the TB Control Unit, Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

We will continue to mandate that patients with such diseases be adequately treated, with isolation in the Communicable Disease Centre if necessary. Such mandated treatment will not be charged. This will also apply to patients who are infected with bird flu in the early stages of a pandemic, when all cases will be isolated at the CDC to prevent its spread to the community.

However, not all infectious diseases pose a public health threat to the rest of the population. Advances in medical science have changed the management of many infectious diseases, reducing the public health concerns. An example is chicken pox which is treatable and whose public health consequences have considerably diminished. Given significant herd immunity in the community, the isolation of chicken pox patients in the home environment is adequate. The Ministry has hence stopped providing free hospitalisation for chicken pox cases.