IT IS here. The H1N1 flu virus was brought into Singapore on Tuesday by a Singapore Management University (SMU) undergraduate back from New York, where she was on a 10-day study mission.

Flu alert to stay at yellow SINGAPORE'S first H1N1 case comes five weeks after the virus was originally detected in Mexico. Mr Khaw had predicted that it would land here, given Singapore's global air hub status with flights coming in from affected areas. The virus, while contagious, has so far proven to be mild. This is why Mr Khaw sees no reason to escalate Singapore's colour-code alert system from yellow to orange though there is a confirmed case here. ... more From touchdown to isolation within hours THE 22-year-old female student packed an N95 mask for her 10-day New York trip that started in mid-May. But few in the Big Apple were wearing them. She was fine until the flight home, when she started coughing while on board flight SQ25. But as she still had no fever, she passed through the thermal scanners at Changi Airport unflagged. ... more RELATED LINKS  Timeline of what happened

Accompanied by her boyfriend, a fellow undergraduate, she went to a general practitioner nearby, who suspected she had the virus and had her transported by ambulance to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

By midnight, she had tested positive for Influenza A (H1N1), a flu strain that emanated from Mexico in late April and has since spread to 47 other countries.

She is in a stable condition in the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) and is expected to be well enough to go home in five days.

The containment measures that have been put in place since Singapore's brush with Sars in 2003 have kicked in. Her boyfriend is also in the CDC for observation, while her family maid is being quarantined at the Aloha Resort in Loyang.

Her seven family members were not in or did not have much contact with her when she returned home. Home quarantine orders were also issued to her two travelling companions, a coursemate and her lecturer, as well as 20 other passengers sitting near her on SQ25 from New York to Singapore via Frankfurt.

Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said on Wednesday that the public health priority now is to make sure that the virus does not spread like wildfire, the way it is doing in the United States and Mexico.

'Hopefully, we can achieve a slow burn scenario. And it will burn slowly if we are alert in detecting, isolating, contact tracing very aggressively, hunting down every possible close contact and quarantining them,' he said.

The 'slow burn' strategy requires not just vigilance on the part of the authorities, but individuals as well.

He praised the patient for doing the right thing by seeking medical attention quickly. Likewise, he commended the GP, Dr Koh Chong Cheng, for his quick response in calling 993 for the dedicated ambulance service.