SINGAPORE; October 26th,2005: Hitwise statistics show that Health and Medical websites increased their share of total traffic from Singapore Internet users by 9.7% between the weeks ending September 3 and October 15, 2005.

These trends reflect a renewed focus on health in Asia and the rest of the world, with the threat of a bird flu pandemic grabbing headlines around the globe. A Hitwise Media Mentions search for the word 'flu' returns 2,048 results for the week ending October 18. Internet searches for the term 'bird flu' increased by over 2,900% between the week ending September 3 and week ending October 15. The official Singapore Government Bird Flu website (www.birdflu.gov.sg) climbed to a rank of 90 in Hitwise's Health and Medical - Information category for the week ending October 1.

The threat of a pandemic also increased interest in pharmaceutical research and products. For the week ending October 18, there were 659 Media Mentions for the flu vaccine brand 'tamiflu' and 167 for 'relenza'. Interestingly, 23 out of the Top 25 search terms resulting in visits to websites in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Products category were brands. Hitwise industry statistics show that 65% of traffic to the Pharmaceutical and Medical Products category was directed at international websites for the week ending October 15. They also show a high churn rate in the category, with 34 new sites entering the Top 100 from the previous week's rankings. 45.7% of total traffic in the category was concentrated among the Top 10 websites.