I had the privilege of attending a tour of the former Communicable Diseases Centre/Middleton Hospital today, organized by Jerome Lim of the Long and Winding Road and the Singapore Land Authority. CDC has now been added to the series of tours of state-owned sites (Discovering Singapore’s Best Kept Secrets) that includes old Changi Hospital and […]
This topic was previously touched on 2 years ago. The speculation at that time was whether hepatitis E in Singapore is also linked to the consumption of undercooked pork. This seems to be answered by a new study (behind a pay wall) that has just been published in the journal Zoonoses Public Health by investigators […]
A belated post on the announcement on 9th July that UK will be testing a subscription model for antibiotics that hopes to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to develop new antibiotics in the future. The background to this is that – unlike most other drugs and medical devices – there is acknowledged market failure where antibiotics […]
For the past several weeks, dengue has been in the news because of the surge in cases – the highest for the past several years. The National Environment Agency (NEA) has attributed this to three main factors: An increase in the Aedes aegypti (the primary vector for the dengue virus in Singapore) population in Singapore. […]
Last “advertisement” for these two student essay contests, jointly organized by the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore General Hospital, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering. Contest details are available here (AMR) and here (Microbiome). All students of schools in Singapore are welcome. All essays to be submitted […]
Last week, Singapore experienced its first case of monkeypox in the form of a tourist from Nigeria who developed symptoms only after having spent several days in town. Monkeypox is endemic in west and central Africa, probably maintained in multiple rodent populations with occasional animal-to-human transmission. An excellent review of human cases was published in […]
The final week of April each year marks World Immunization Week. The theme this year is “Protected Together: Vaccines Work”. I have not written much about vaccinations in the past, simply because this is not one of my particular interest areas, and there are others who are far more competent in this regard. But in […]
Today is International Women’s Day. The theme this year is #BalanceforBetter, because gender balance benefits us all. Although this day is not a holiday in Singapore, there are still several commemorative events that have taken place. It also got me thinking about women who are infectious diseases specialists in Singapore. With the help of Google […]
Measles – a highly contagious viral disease with a characteristic rash – has been in the news of late. The most recent outbreak that made the news was in the Philippines, centering around Metro Manila, Luzon and Visayas. There have been at least 87 reported deaths and more than 5,600 cases reported this year, as […]
A chance exchange of messages with a prominent GP classmate led me to understand that there may be many doctors in Singapore who are uncomfortable with providing flu shots to children with egg allergy. The issue here is that the vast majority of influenza vaccines contain a tiny amount of ovalbumin – an egg protein […]
MIPHIDIC 