It is well known that patients with haematological disorders are at high risk for developing infections caused by different fungi. Part of this is due to the inherent immune system defects that develop as a consequence of their haematological disorders, but the greater part of the risk can be attributed to the treatment that they receive […]
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) looks set to becoming Singapore’s biggest antibiotic-resistant bacterial challenge for the immediate future, even more so than other members of the multidrug-resistant bacteria “alphabet soup”, viz. MRSA, VRE, XDR-AB, XDR-PA, etc. What is one unexpected consequence of having patients with CRE in our hospitals? Well, it gets into our sewage system. I have […]
A question was raised regarding the prevalence of rapidly-growing mycobacteria (RGM) in Singapore following the previous post. Researchers in several countries have found that the prevalence of infections caused by RGM had been increasing over time, including in UK between 1995-2006, Taiwan between 2000-2008, Queensland (Australia) between 1999-2005, and in Minnesota (USA) between 1980-2009. Other than in […]
A middle-aged man with Type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension developed extensive subarachnoid haemorrhage acutely, and underwent a 4-vessel cerebral angiogram during which an anterior communicating artery aneurysm was found and coiled. He recovered gradually with inpatient rehabilitation, and was sent home after 2 weeks of hospitalisation. However, he had developed a cough with mild […]
Spent some time at the National Library earlier today looking through the digitised newspaper archives. Here are some screenshots of old tuberculosis news articles that caught my eye:
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 […]
Just a plug for the Courage Fund Conference, which will be held at the Marina Mandarin Hotel in Singapore from 11th to 13th March this year. The conference website is here. Disclaimer: I am a member of the organising committee. This infectious diseases conference will have renowned speakers from around the world, and is unique in […]
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 […]
A year ago, a report was published on Public Health Action (the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease’s open access journal) by members of the Singapore Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (STEP) and Ministry of Health, looking at tuberculosis cases among Singapore residents by ethnicity, notified between 2002 and 2011. There were 15,622 resident cases of […]
Some of the local press (courtesy of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health‘s corporate communications team) picked up an obscure article that we published earlier this year in BMC Public Health, looking at the trend of tuberculosis in Singapore (among residents and non-residents) between 1995 and 2011. Here’s the Today link. Basically, we looked […]
MIPHIDIC 