I had the honour of being invited to attend the workshop and seminar in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This event – held today and tomorrow – is organized by the Ministry of Health Malaysia in collaboration with the US Embassy in Malaysia as well as the World Health Organization (WHO). It was a far larger […]
The second Antibiotic Awareness Essay Contest – jointly organized by SSHSPH, Ngee Ann Polytechnic and Singapore General Hospital – received more entrants than last year. Thankfully, the judges managed to read through the whole lot in time and the winners are listed below. We particularly enjoyed Ms Megan Sim’s clever poem, which is included as […]
The 13th edition of Singapore’s Public Health & Occupational Medicine Conference (or PHOM as it is called) was held at the One Farrer Hotel on 4th and 5th of October. I had attended a few of the earlier editions, and the number of attendees has increased with each year. The public health community in Singapore […]
In 2010, I was invited to Bangladesh for an event relating to antimicrobial resistance organized by ReACT and the INDEPTH Network. There was a field trip to a village that I vividly recalled. We took a several-hour drive to the village in four wheel drives provided by the icddr,b (formerly International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease […]
The NHS Quality Premium is a financial incentive given to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) – which commission most of the hospital and community health services in their respective areas in England – that meet or exceed pre-set indicators in health outcome improvement and/or service quality. I was quite intrigued when I learned that antibiotic prescribing […]
It is now well known that antibiotic use in animal husbandry far exceeds antibiotic use in humans. There is now considerable corporate and individual interest in reducing the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry – see for example McDonald’s (!) which even has a corporate vision for antibiotic stewardship in food animals. One issue is […]
A personal and primarily local look back at the year. What are the major infectious diseases events in modern Singapore in 2017? Outbreaks The World Health Organization (WHO) has a list of outbreaks by year on its website, and the 2017 list is depressingly long. There are the usual “suspects” like cholera (Africa) and diphtheria […]
It is one week after World Antibiotic Awareness Week. Nonetheless, raising awareness of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance is an ongoing process, and the team led by Dr Clarence Tam from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health set up their stations at Marine Parade Public Library this weekend. The library did not see as […]
While the first prize was the JC/Polytechnic section was deservedly awarded to Mstr Fong Khi Yung from Raffles Institution, for his work of futuristic fiction. More by the microscopic than the colossal On some evenings, I walk through the expressionless countryside fields undulating in the wind, gazing up at the crimson heavens and golden sunset […]
And the top prize for the Post-Antibiotic World Essay Competition goes to Chan Ger Hui. Well-deserved! A Post-Antibiotic World It all started with one small holiday And one very small spore. Stray fungi growing on a petri dish Was soon to be so much more. Remember for this discovery Fleming— But forget not Florey, Chain, […]
MIPHIDIC 