The decision process is triggered when a person starts to show symptoms. Depending on the severity, if the person is critically ill, he/she is admitted to the flu hospital for diagnosis and given mandatory treatment. Regardless of diagnosis outcome, the person will be hospitalized and kept isolated. For one showing mild symptoms, there is a 50 per cent chance that he/ she will visit the hospital to seek medical attention, i.e. diagnosis compliance rate. Note that the diagnosis compliance rate is 100 per cent for a person who is currently following quarantine orders. As our model is simulated in steps of 1 h, it will not be the case whereby the person will visit the hospital (if he/she decides to go) the moment symptoms appear. Instead, the trip will only be made after a certain delay, or when the hospital is open, whichever comes later. Currently, we set the delay to 6 h. At the hospital, a patient is diagnosed using one of the four possible approaches, depending on the diagnostic test we wished to assess. The time required varies with the type of diagnostic tests being used. If the patient is tested positive for pandemic influenza, treatment will be offered. For the treatment, we assumed that the drug used is the commonly stockpiled Oseltamivir (US National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health 2009). A patient being tested positive (index case) will be given two doses a day for 5 days, consuming a total of 10 doses. A negatively tested patient will be sent home where he/she will decide whether or not to take absenteeism from work or school. Unlike patients who are admitted due to critical illnesses, the class of positively tested patients may not comply with the given treatment (i.e. refuse to take medication even when it is prescribed to them). In the current model, the treatment compliance rate is set at 95 per cent. However, regardless of compliance, drugs given are considered expended and will be added to the total medication used. After the required drugs have been prescribed, patients with mild symptoms will be issued quarantine orders, where they are to stay at home for a pre-determined amount of time. Again, the patient may or may not comply with the quarantine order. Currently, we set the quarantine compliance rate at 50 per cent.