I had the pleasure of attending the 5th ICICAS held at Mandarin Orchard in Singapore from 19th to 21st October. Held every two years – which means this conference has been running for 10 years already – the programme this year was both innovative and interesting, and featured excellent international (and local, of course) speakers. […]
It was both a surprise and an honour to be invited for the lecture organised by the Science and Innovation Team of the British High Commission. Prof Sally Davies has been UK’s chief medical officer (equivalent in rank to permanent secretary in the civil service) since 2010, the first woman to attain that position. The […]
The number of reported Zika cases in Singapore has plunged over the past couple of weeks, as can be seen from the National Environment Agency’s website (screenshot below). Only one cluster – the original Aljunied-Sims Drive area – remains active (with new cases being reported) currently. How much of this is due to actual control […]
The Zika epidemic in Singapore appears to be progressing towards endemicity. As of yesterday, there are 387 confirmed cases, with 9 clusters. Among the confirmed cases are 16 pregnant women, and the Ministry of Health has announced plans to set up a national surveillance programme to monitor the development of babies born to these and […]
Today’s addition of 16 new cases of Zika infection – the smallest number added for the past week – brings the total number of confirmed Zika infections to 258. No links to prior clusters were found in 4 cases. It is too soon to know whether this drop in cases reported represents a blip or if […]
The Ministry of Health Singapore (MOH) released a joint statement last night that included a short statement about the sequencing results of the viruses obtained from two patients from Sim’s Drive. What was of interest was the claim that “the (local) virus belongs to the Asian lineage and likely evolved from the strain that was […]
Took a truncated hiatus from Zika to attend the 17th International Sympsium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections held at the Nine Tree Convention Centre in Seoul, Korea. It’s a rather quaint and unique conference, centered around one single bacterial genus (but it’s almost all about Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA), held every two years rotating between […]
Tuberculosis, Singapore Curiously, a report of 2 SMRT train drivers and a crew manager being diagnosed with TB made it to the news today. Only one among them had active disease – the other two were diagnosed with latent tuberculosis which is non-infectious. Such cases are rarely highlighted in our mainstream media. The risk of tuberculosis […]
MIPHIDIC 