Played a bit role along with the SGH Department of Microbiology blogger in an Environmental Health Institute (EHI) study looking at Staphylococcus aureus isolates obtained from retail food and food handlers’ gloves in Singapore over the period 2011 to 2014. The work is now published in the open access journal Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control. […]
I was glad for the opportunity to the Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) today at Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is a private non-profit hospital established in 1999 as a result of Japanese photographer Kenro Izu’s efforts – the touching story can be read on the hospital’s website here. It is a paediatric hospital for Cambodian […]
The essay contest has closed. There were a total of 49 essays submitted – 35 in the Secondary School section and 14 in the Junior College/Polytechnic section. We have a trio of distinguished and experienced judges who very kindly agreed to review the essays. The judging should be completed by mid-October, while the prize presentation […]
I was unfortunately not able to spend much time at the SIIDC, which is taking place now at the Waterfront Conference Centre at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. This is actually the second such general infectious disease (ID) conference organized by the Singapore ID community, the first being the Courage Fund Infectious Diseases Conference which […]
The recent BMJ study and the international hype around it did pique one local newspaper journalist enough that further questions were asked of Ms Winnie Lee and myself. A pretty nice and informative article was published in the Lianhe Zaobao yesterday (in Chinese). Antibiotics are over-prescribed in Singapore, as they are in virtually all developed countries. […]
The follow-up debate (and backlash) to the BMJ article that hit the news just over 2 weeks ago would be interesting, I thought. And indeed it was. Out of 31 “Rapid Responses” to the article at BMJ itself at this point in time (almost all by physicians), 15 were against the conclusions of the article […]
An article published in the venerable British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Wednesday has been picked up by several news agencies. I had described this culture of doctors recommending that “antibiotic courses should be completed” in an earlier post on URTI, and how the doctors I had encountered all felt that failure to finish antibiotics would “result in […]
A shameless self-plug. My colleagues and I – or rather, our institutions – were recently awarded a 4-year Collaborative Centre Grant on antimicrobial resistance. The objective of the centre grants, to quote the National Medical Research Council website, is to provide funding that will allow public healthcare institutions to build core research infrastructure and manpower, which […]
The first entries for the student essays are starting to trickle in, which is great (at least there are entrees now!). The closing date for the essay contest is 30th August 2017 (2359H), and more details are available on the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health website. We would certainly welcome more entrees from […]
Second last plug for our essay and video contest, jointly organised by the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and Ngee Ann Polytechnic, funded by many generous donors to our Antibiotics Awareness Fund. Details and replies to some queries below: Any original video 3 minutes or shorter, on the above theme. Group participation welcome […]
MIPHIDIC 