THE H1N1 flu bug has invaded schools, nightspots and army camps - but not the dormitories of foreign workers so far. And operators want to keep it that way.

Those returning to Avery Strategic Investments' four dormitories now have to go through temperature checks before they enter their lodgings. Anyone found running a temperature of 37.5 deg C and above will be isolated. If a worker's fever persists after 30 minutes, his employer will be notified. The dorm operators are following 'infection control measures' put out by the Manpower Ministry (MOM).

These include: disinfecting common areas, advising the workers to maintain high standards of hygiene and setting aside rooms within the dorm for isolation purposes. Flu prevention posters in languages such as Chinese, Tamil and Bengali have also been put up in their dormitories.

Avery's director, Mr Vernon Chua, said security turnstiles, where the workers gain entry to the dorms, are disinfected daily. Another operator, MES Group of Companies, disinfects common areas such as gyms and canteens three to four times a day, up from just once or twice a day more than a month ago.

The 33 commercial dorms listed on the MOM's website house up to 8,000 workers. Given how densely packed they are, dorms have traditionally been hot spots for contagious diseases, including dengue and even malaria.

So far, the H1N1 flu bug has given the dorms a miss but Mrs Bridget Lew, president of foreign worker advocacy group Home, said she is afraid that some workers who caught the virus may have ignored it, and treated it as a regular illness. She also hopes employers will not penalise workers if they are quarantined.

While temperature checks are done on all 22,000 residents at Avery's dorms, Centurion Dormitory (Westlite) said it pays specific attention to workers who have been travelling.

Property manager Bakurdeen A. Majid said Centurion has been recording the temperatures of 'workers returning from overseas leave, overseas work assignments and those freshly recruited'. The concern is that these residents might have caught the virus on flights or at airports. It operates one dorm which has about 4,500 workers.

At Centurion Dormitory - run by Centurion Dormitory (Westlite) - a mass cleaning event involving all the residents was organised two weekends ago to improve the level of cleanliness.

But the effort is worth it, because 'if there is an outbreak, everyone loses out', said Mr Shaik Mohamed of the MES Group of Companies.

Please read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times

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