The detailed report on Singapore’s multi-faceted approach at containing and investigating last year’s Zika outbreak has finally been published online at Lancet Infectious Diseases. I had written superficially about some of the events in a series of blog posts at that time, but this published work describes comprehensively both the clinical and public health aspects of managing […]
The third of four Singapore papers in the latest supplementary issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases on Infection Prevention in the Asia-Pacific is also based on work funded by the now defunct Communicable Diseases Public Health Research Grant from the Ministry of Health. The lead investigator – A/Prof Angela Chow from the Department of Clinical Epidemiology […]
One of the major criticisms of scientific publishing is the long delay it takes between writing up the work and eventually getting it out in the public arena, with the fault shared variously between the authors, journal editorial boards, and peer reviewers. In the process, the data and results are usually embargoed. There is an excellent […]
Our short letter on a macaque-specific clone of MRSA is now available on the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (paywall). The story is quite an interesting one. Three years ago, one of the macaques used in neurosurgical research at the SingHealth Experimental Medicine Centre (SEMC) developed a wound infection (the monkeys went around with what looked like metal […]
One has to appreciate the messiness that results from science and research during the initial phase of evidence gathering. Just after the letter in NEJM describing the lack of resurgence of microcephaly cases in Brazil in 2016, the U.S. CDC published data from their Zika Pregnancy Registry, showing in a paper published on 4th April in the […]
Like most other infectious disease physicians and microbiologists, I have been following the evolving global Mycobacterium chimaera outbreak with interest. I knew nothing about M. chimaera (or that it even existed) until last year. It is an interesting organism – a slow-growing non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM – a “catchall classification” that includes all mycobacteria other than those belonging to the Mycobacterium […]
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 […]
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 […]
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