For the week ending 3rd January 2015, influenza activity in the US remained above epidemic levels, defined by the pneumonia and influenza mortality surveillance that was above the epidemic threshold of 6.9% for that week. The laboratory confirmed influenza hospitalisation rates have also gone up in all age groups, alarmingly so for those who are […]
Dr. William Stewart, then Surgeon General of USA, famously said in 1967, “It’s time to close the books on infectious diseases, declare the war against pestilence won, and shift national resources to such chronic problems as cancer and heart disease.” Many, including myself, have used this quote to illustrate the shortsightedness of human nature, even […]
There are a large number of news reports on the flu season in USA currently, including this fairly comprehensive one from CNN, after the statistics for mortality from pneumonia and influenza in the USA crossed 6.8% (the epidemic threshold) on Week 51 of 2014. There have been 15 paediatric deaths to date (as of 20th […]
A new year has begun. What were the major infectious diseases events of the past year? The following two are my personal picks, reflecting on what I have read or experienced in 2014: Ebola outbreak in West Africa. This is the Ebola outbreak that dwarfs all previous outbreaks combined, and is still ongoing in Sierra […]
After a period of 6-7 years of “rational MRSA control’ targeted towards MRSA containment rather than eradication, many Singaporean public sector hospitals stepped up efforts to reduce their MRSA burden again. While it was clear that the infection control staff from different hospitals were communicating with each other, there was no overall or coordinated strategy among […]
The 50th post on this blog! And perhaps it is fitting to put up this case, which I reviewed as a fairly new trainee in infectious diseases slightly more than a decade ago… This young girl, who had just turned 18, developed upper respiratory tract symptoms and fever 4 days prior to hospitalisation. Her fever […]
I was rather pleased to be referred this blog set up by the microbiologists of the Department of Pathology at Singapore General Hospital. Very beautiful pictures of plates and microscopy images of the bacteria and fungi isolated from their patients!
There’s an interesting perspective article published ahead of print in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal (a Centers for Disease Prevention and Control journal), reviewing border entry screening for infectious diseases in the modern age. In a previous post, I had mentioned that border entry screening for infectious diseases is not very effective for detecting patients […]
Managed to attend more talks today. The morning plenary was delivered by Prof Hsueh Po Ren from Taipei, Taiwan, who described in detail the escalating threat of antimicrobial resistance in the Asia-Pacific region. The quality of the photos is poor (taken using an iPhone 5!), given the dim lighting during the talks. The subsequent keynote […]
MIPHIDIC 