I spent a pleasant afternoon yesterday listening to various presentations on completed and semi-completed projects at the SIDI Research Symposium at Waterfront Copthorne (Declaration: I am the current director of the Singapore Infectious Diseases Initiative, or SIDI for short). The projects were very diverse in nature, ranging from basic science to clinical research as well […]
I used to think that trying to establish antibiotic stewardship in Singapore in an outpatient setting, just like in private hospitals, was a relatively futile exercise. Multiple factors (or so I thought) contribute to the failure of any serious effort that goes beyond public or physician education, including: Patients who insist on antibiotics (and who can easily obtain […]
Two further observances were held at TTSH and SGH on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th November. There was also a booth set up at NUH on Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week. All events were organised by the respective hospital antimicrobial stewardship programme (ASP) members. Unfortunately I do not have access to more professionally taken […]
Here are some photos of the WAAW event at Jurong Library, organised by staff from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health. There is also an attempt at making a Flipagram out of several photos here. All photos were taken by Pearl Gan.
One of the most vexing antibiotic-related questions is: “Should you finish the course of antibiotics that the doctor has prescribed you?” My colleague and I were asked just that when we were interviewed by 938Live Body & Soul’s Daniel Martin recently. The conventional answer has generally been: “Yes, you should finish every single dose, even if […]
I learned about this intriguing comic book via Twitter. Written by Sara Kenney – a documentary producer with a masters in science communication – and drawn by John Watkiss, this series about a young brash female surgeon and how she navigates a dystopian future U.K. where antibiotic resistance is rife and where antibiotics are kept under […]
An ongoing Facebook discussion on medical tourism set me thinking about its implications. There are many who argue that more should be done to encourage the growth of Singapore’s medical tourism industry, which reached its peak In 2012. Reasons include regional stature, development of more specialized medical skills (due to a larger pool of patients […]
World Antibiotic Awareness Week – an annual campaign supported by the World Health Organization – will take place in two weeks time, from 14th to 20th November 2016. The aim of the campaign is to “increase awareness of global antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices among the general public, health workers and policy makers to […]
I have been waiting for this study (behind the Elsevier paywall) to be published for some time. In the largest and most detailed study to date, Dutch investigators followed up 2,001 travellers and 215 of their non-travelling household members for one year, and found that 34.3% of travellers had acquired extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) during their […]
Next Tuesday will be the start of the National Environment Agency’s (NEA’s) Project Wolbachia rollout. Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes will be released initially at Braddell Heights, followed by Nee Soon East and Tampines West as small scale trials of both efficacy and mosquito behaviour. As I understand it, there are three major dengue control strategies involving Wolbachia-infected Aedes […]
MIPHIDIC 