This year’s commemoration – which aims to raise awareness of both antibiotics and antibiotic resistance – will end tomorrow. The World Health Organization (WHO) and many countries use World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) to highlight “best practices among the general public, health workers and policy makers to help stop the further emergence and spread of […]
Over the past year, I was privileged to be involved in a history project that was actually funded by the National Heritage Board (number 26 on this list). I was then working at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), helping with the transition of the Communicable Diseases Centre (CDC) to the new National Centre for Infectious […]
There are a series of clinical trials published this year that challenge long-held notions in the treatment of infectious diseases. When I was a trainee, we routinely prescribe high-dose intravenous antibiotics for prolonged periods of 4 to 6 weeks for infective endocarditis (infection of the heart valves), because the conventional understanding was that high concentrations […]
The Philippines declared an outbreak of polio on 19th September, after a 3-year-old girl from Lanao del Sur (on Mindanao island) was confirmed to have developed acute flaccid paralysis from vaccine-derived Type 2 poliovirus infection. A second case of polio due to the same virus was announced 2 days later, also on Mindanao but more […]
There are four plaques in St Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore commemorating the Sepoy (Singapore) Mutiny in 1915. On 15th February 1915 which was the last day of Chinese New Year, half of the 5th Native Light Infantry – which was then stationed at Alexandra Barracks – mutinied, killing dozens of British troops and civilians before […]
I was privileged to attend the official opening of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) today. Operational since the end of 2018, NCID is the 21st century iteration of a facility to contain infectious diseases threats in Singapore. It was great to catch up with old colleagues and friends – the event was almost […]
While looking through old records for a project on the history of Middleton Hospital/Communicable Diseases Centre, we came across numerous references to enteric fever and typhoid in annual reports from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Environment, and even those from the Medical Department in the Colonial Office (pre-independence) archives. It was clear that starting […]
There were 18 cases of typhoid fever reported in Singapore over 3 weeks, with the onset of symptoms between 13th July and 4th August this year. This is a far larger number than usual – the disease now occurs primarily in returning travelers or migrant workers from countries where the bacterium remains endemic. The cause […]
In 2008, a few colleagues and I wrote a position paper on antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance in Singapore, making a number of recommendations which we felt would be important to improve antibiotic use and mitigate the threat of antimicrobial resistance here. Those were not particularly controversial recommendations, and reflected the thinking of the international […]
I was asked to write a commentary on adult vaccination in Singapore, during the course of which I read a number of articles surrounding adult vaccinations in general and Singapore in particular. A handful of things stood out for me: There is no clear or easy way to find the data on vaccination rates among […]
MIPHIDIC 