The World Health Organization (WHO) has been visibly busy this month in the area of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The agency released a report on the global pipeline of new antibiotics (including anti-tuberculosis drugs) on 19th September. It can be downloaded here. There is also a new infographic on what WHO considers priority pathogens in addition […]
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 […]
Broadly defined, healthcare-associated infections (HAIs, also termed “hospital-acquired infections” or “nosocomial infections”) are infections that occur during the process of care in a healthcare facility, most commonly a hospital. They are an important quality indicator for healthcare institutions – conceptually, one would not really wish to be treated at a hospital where one’s risk of acquiring an […]
The following court case, described in the Australian Doctor (behind a paywall) was brought to my attention by an old friend. Essentially, a young boy slipped on wet concrete and developed an open fracture of his thumb in 2011. He was treated at a Sydney hospital, receiving IV flucloxacillin as the antibiotic stewardship guideline-recommended prophylaxis […]
My second visit to the compound of the Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO), WHO. It has been an interesting three days, finding out the status of the national action plans on antimicrobial resistance of the member states of WPRO, and learning from the participants the challenges faced as well as how they might possibly be […]
Had great fun listening to medical students (Group 6) from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine presenting on their Community Health Project (CHP) this morning. Naturally I felt that their project was the most important of all the ones done this year. Their findings on community carriage of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase […]
MIPHIDIC 