Postscript

To Mr Ang:

Due to the way this site works, youmight have to read this write up from the bottom up. Sorry for the inconvinience.

Zia Xin, 2GY, 23

Bibliography

Here are the sources that I have used in this performance task:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/facts.htm
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/bird-flu-transparency
http://www.avianinfluenza.org/bird-flu-symptoms.php
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php
http://www.avianinfluenza.org/mutated-avian-influenza-virus-h5n1 .php
http://www.moh.gov.sg/mohcorp/diseases
http://kidshealth.org/teen/infections/bacterial_viral/Mad_Cow_disease.html
http://txtwriter.com/Onscience/Articles/europemadcow1.html
http://news.google.com/newspapers
http://www.mas.gov.sg/resource/eco_research/eco_dev_ana/inflation_monthly
http://www.newsweek.com
http://.topnews.com.sg/content/252-total-infected-h1n1-singapore-now-1055-52-new-cases

Concluding Passage

Although all the presented epidemics were different, they also displayed many similarities, especially in the effects that the different epidemics had on us. Bird flu was an illness that affected animals and therefore our food source. Because of it, Singapore's access to poultry was reduced. Likewise, Mad Cow Disease impacted our beef supply and swine flu made citizens wary of pork, thereby again limiting our food source. In all three cases, Singapore's economy suffered. Bird flu and Mad Cow Disease caused food prices to go up as safe food became harder to find. Swine flu impacted our economy in another way. By making us an "infected area" that tourists avoided, swine flu dented our tourism sector, which was one of Singapore's importance source of income.

In conclusion, epidemics will always impact us somehow, whether or not they are deadly. Besides infecting us or the people around us, epidemics can also influence our economy, livelihoods and food supply. If we are not careful, epidemics like the previous ones could happen again. To prevent this, we should try to be more careful with our hygiene and always be on the alert so that an epidemic will not catch us off guard.

Epidemics- Swine Flu(H1N1)

The most recent epidemic to hit Singapore is the Swine Flu, otherwise known as H1N1. From the source, which is a warning poster about H1N1, we can see that it is a very infectious disease and can cause death or other serious complications. Its symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle ache, coughing,etc. It is a highly contagious disease that is spread through coughing, sneezing,etc.

In 2009, a boy in Mexico contracted the disease. It spread to USA months later through infected tourists and immigrants from Mexico. Soon, the Swine flu was spreading across the world quickly through infected plane passengers. In May 2009, a female student, infected with H1N1, flew in from New York to Singapore, bringing with her Singapore's first case of H1N1. 60 passengers sitting near her were put into home quarantine.

By July, there were already 1055 cases of H1N1 in Singapore. In September, 18 H1N1 related deaths had occured. H1N1, though not as deadly as some other epidemics, left an impact on Singapore's tourism sector. As Singapore was identified as an infected area, tourists avoided coming for fear of contracting the disease. This dealt a blow to the tourism industry, which was very important for Singapore. Also, people tended to avoid pork as they were afraid of contracting swine flu during the H1N1 period despite the fact that H1N1 could not be caught through eating pork. This impacted those who usually ate or sold pork, as their diet or livelihood were affected.

In conclusion, although swine flu was less deadly than some other epidemics, it left a heavy impact as it caused our tourism sector to suffer. Furthermore, the virus caused deaths and panic among citizens, affecting their morale. Therefore, although swine flu has simmered down, it is an epidemic that will left a deep impression in the minds of Singaporeans.

Epidemics- Mad Cow Disease(bovine spongiform encephalopathy)

Another epidemic that impacted Singapore is the Mad Cow Disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. It attacks the cow's nervous system and causes strange behavior in them. The pictorial source shows a cow affected by Mad Cow Disease. As seen from the source, the infected cows were unable to stand or walk. Although humans cannot contract Mad Cow Disease, there is another brain disease closely linked to it, the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, that affects humans. People with this disease will lose control of their mental and physical state. People could contract this by eating beef infected with Mad Cow Disease. Symptoms include depression, anxiety, muscle spasms, poor memory and unsteadiness. In the end, the person will die as there is no known cure.

In the mid 1980s, cows in Britain suffered an outbreak of Mad Cow Disease.The cows had gotten it from meal made from infected animals. About 750,000 cows infected with Mad Cow Disease went into hamburgers, sausages and other meat products. Over the next few years, cases of variant CJD surfaced in Britain. Soon after, other European countries' cows were also affected, as they did not restrict the meal that had first infected the cows in Britain. In 2001, the disease spread to Asia, Japan.

Singapore and many other countries stopped importing beef from Britain,US, Ireland, Germany, Denmark,Canada,Japan and other infected countries. Many countries turned to safer sources such as New Zealand and Australia for beef. The surge in demand from these sources caused a rise in beef prices. Thus, although the Mad Cow Disease epidemic did not actuallly come to Singapore, we still felt its impact through the high beef prices. People who especially enjoy eating certain types of beef such as Japanese beef were affected more as that beef were unavailable due to the suspension of import from many places. In conclusion, despite the disease not reaching Singapore, it still left an impact in the form of higher beef prices and lesser variety of beef.

Epidemics- Bird Flu (Avian Influenza, H5N1)

Over the years of her independence, Singapore has been impacted by many external events, which are defined as events that come from outside Singapore. An example of these external events is epidemics. One such epidemic is bird flu, also known as avian influenza or H1N5. In the pictorial source shown, we can see people burying many dead chickens. These chickens have been killed to prevent the spread of bird flu, an infection that occurs naturally in birds and spread through saliva, faeces and other excretions. Humans too, can contract bird flu through contact with infected birds or humans. Symptoms of bird flu include fever, sore throat, cough and headache,etc. Bird flu was a much feared disease as once contracted by a human, it can develop into pneumonia, respiratory diseases and brain and heart inflammation.

2003 saw the first bird flu outbreak in Asia. It originated from Hong Kong and spread to Europe in 2005, infecting and killing both poultry and humans. A large amount of poultry was killed to limit the spread of H1N5, as seen from the many dead fowls in the source. The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) made a decision to suspend the import of poulty from infected countries, including Malaysia, USA, Canada, China and the Netherlands. For a period of time during the bird flu epidemic, Singaporeans had limited access to poultry products and our poultry supplies had to be sustained with Singapore's own frozen supplies. These factors also led to an increase in poultry prices.

In conclusion, Singapore was affected by bird flu to a moderate extent as no Singaporean fell ill due to bird flu. However, for those who ate or came into contact with fowls regularly, their usual diet and lifestyle were forced to change as a result of bird flu.

TEsting, testing, one two three