Announced by the United Nations this morning, the newly established group – which comprises high level representatives from various UN agencies, other relevant organisations, and experts from human and animal health as well as environmental sectors – will be co-chaired by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan. The other members of […]
Had great fun listening to medical students (Group 6) from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine presenting on their Community Health Project (CHP) this morning. Naturally I felt that their project was the most important of all the ones done this year. Their findings on community carriage of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase […]
The World Health Organization (WHO) published its first ever list of drug-resistant bacteria for which new antibiotics are urgently needed 2 days ago. The list is divided into 3 priority categories: “critical”, “high” and “medium”, based on a series of criteria that included (and I quote ad verbatim) “how deadly the infections they cause are; […]
Another piece of work that has taken much effort and a long time to get published (now out in Scientific Reports), but certainly one that expanded my own understanding of how diverse techniques can contribute to our knowledge of infectious diseases. This work – looking at the distribution of reported cases of resident (defined locally […]
Covered multiple times in multiple versions elsewhere, but a recent chat with a classmate (who has to write about this topic in Chinese) made me consider attempting my own version. What are the common myths I have encountered about antibiotics and antibiotic resistance? Antibiotics cure all infections Another version is that they work against colds […]
Operation Asha is a non-profit NGO founded in 2005 by two Indian nationals – Dr Shelly Batra and Mr Sandeep Ahuja – with the primary aim of bringing “TB treatment to disadvantaged communities”. Its headquarters are in India, although the NGO also operates in Cambodia and USA (the latter mainly fundraising and research). I was […]
We are organizing an essay and a video contest for students of Singapore schools (including polytechnics but excluding universities). The essay contest is open to students between 13 and 20 years of age. No entry fee is required, and any essay format (i.e. fiction, scientific communication, poetry, etc) is welcome. The essays should be submitted […]
This issue came up as part of a discussion on improving antibiotic prescription – the discussion triggered (strangely enough) by the lack of mention in this week’s Straits Times article on inappropriate antibiotic prescription. It is an interesting topic for discussion and understanding, but I would like to stress that the issues go far beyond […]
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 […]
MIPHIDIC 