Covered multiple times in multiple versions elsewhere, but a recent chat with a classmate (who has to write about this topic in Chinese) made me consider attempting my own version. What are the common myths I have encountered about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance? Antibiotics cure all infections Another version is that they work against colds […]
We are organizing an essay and a video contest for students of Singapore schools (including polytechnics but excluding universities). The essay contest is open to students between 13 and 20 years of age. No entry fee is required, and any essay format (i.e. fiction, scientific communication, poetry, etc) is welcome. The essays should be submitted […]
I was involved (extremely) peripherally in some work on chromosomal resistance islands in Acinetobacter baumannii by Prof Ruth Hall’s team at the University of Sydney, and part of that work has just been published. Basically, the team was investigating a 16S ribosomal RNA methyltransferase gene armA that conveys resistance to a broad array of aminoglycosides (including gentamicin […]
Visited Phnom Penh for the first time last week as part of a delegation from the School of Public Health (the School has a Tuberculosis Control in Cambodia Programme that it implements in partnership with the University of Health Sciences in Cambodia as well as the famous London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). It […]
The SGH Department of Microbiology blogger has just uploaded a paper to biorXiv describing our little hobby project with staff and students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Out of 10 beef (Australia, NZ and Brazil) and 20 pork (Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia) samples from various local supermarkets, one MRSA (from a hunk of pork shoulder ostensibly […]
Naturally, this is biased by what I know and has been reported. But here is what I feel are the significant events in 2016. Outbreaks These are the most easily recalled and form the biggest group of infectious disease events by far. The major outbreaks this year include: Rotavirus gastroenteritis at Pek Kio Market affecting […]
I had previously mentioned that private sector specialists in Singapore are independent operators – the majority actually run their own clinics/practice as individuals. Most professional partnerships between doctors have been small in scale (i.e. 2 or 3 individual doctors), and a good number of such partnerships have come apart because of personal differences or the […]
Some musings at the end of the year, after 6 months back in the public sector following a short 2-year stint in the private sector as an infectious diseases physician. This series will probably be (infrequently) updated and extended over time. My experience is primarily with acute hospital-based care, largely through the lens of the […]
I read icddr,b’s (the acronym for the famous International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh) blog post recently about their ongoing work on antimicrobial resistance. The work is impressive and very relevant to the situation in that country, and the post also brought back memories of a time 6 years ago when I was in […]
MIPHIDIC 