A FEVER and a cough are all the symptoms a Singapore H1N1 patient would likely show.
Some may even have mild or no symptoms at all.
Hence, in the days to come, one in five Influenza A (H1N1) patients will go undetected by doctors and this in turn will increase community transmission, predicted Dr Leo Yee Sin, clinical director of the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC).
Her prediction came after yesterday's release of data collected from the first 50 Influenza A patients who caught the virus overseas and locally.
Dr Leo said: "It will be extremely difficult for doctors to differentiate seasonal influenza from H1N1 without using laboratory techniques."
Among the 50 patients, about one in two had a fever below 37.8 deg C the international benchmark temperature for case detection.
While diarrhoea was a common symptom in patients in the United States, only one of the 50 Singaporean patients had it.
However, symptoms could worsen as the virus spreads to high-risk groups in the community, such as pregnant women, said Dr Leo.
"They could develop a severe lung infection, which could lead to blood poisoning," she said.
From the CDC data, patients who are given Tamiflu within two days of falling ill generally recover two days earlier than those who receive the medicine later.
One in five patients still retains the virus after five days of Tamiflu treatment.
It is not known how much live virus is needed for an infected person to spread it, she said.
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