ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how Singapore’s quarantine system was superseded by a national epidemiological system to track cases of influenza and other infectious diseases after independence. As surveillance became increasingly sophisticated and comprehensive, two influenza outbreaks were of note in this period. The first was the swine flu scare in 1976, which led the government to vaccinate its employees. This was a historic move, for previous administrations had deemed influenza outbreaks to occur too quickly for a vaccine to be manufactured in time, though mass vaccination was affected by widespread fears of side effects. The second event was another scare, caused by the outbreak of bird flu in Hong Kong in 1997. Though the disease did not surface in Singapore, official and public concern over the Hong Kong outbreak was a precursor to the SARS pandemic several years later.
