I read the SGH Department of Microbiology’s official blog’s post on Candida auris and marvelled at the extent of quality control that was portrayed and was also implicit in the identification of the yeast – twice, identifications thrown up by biochemical tests (API20) and the machine “black box” VITEK 2 were rejected by conscientious laboratory staff, who went […]
Probably the most beautiful parasite I have seen under the microscope. Question: What is the name of the parasite and what disease does it cause in humans? [Updated 28 September 2016] This rare (in humans) parasite is Dicroceolium dendriticum – the lancet liver fluke. Humans are only accidental definitive hosts, while ruminants such as sheep, goats […]
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 […]
Not so much a clinical but a radiological vignette – a CT image from more than a decade ago. Question: What is the radiological sign and what is the diagnosis? [Updated 20th September 2016] The CT cut of the lungs shows a “water lily” sign (and thanks for those who suggested that it is an […]
The chess olympiads are finally over, with the very strong men’s USA team powering to its first ever Olympiad gold since 1976 (which the Soviets boycotted). They were seeded second behind the Russian team, but had fielded a team comprising three of the top 10 players in the world (Caruana, Nakamura and So) – the […]
The chess Olympiad at Baku is approximately two-thirds through now and the Singapore teams are doing extremely well. The women’s team – seeded 55th of 140 teams – is currently playing on table 14 and is placed 34th after 7 rounds. The men’s team – seeded 59th of 180 teams – is playing on table […]
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 […]
The biennial chess Olympiad is held in Baku, Azerbaijan this year, from 1st to 14th September. Chess-wise, the capital of Azerbaijan is perhaps best known for being the birthplace of former world champion Garry Kasparov. But the country has long had a very strong chess culture and tradition, and has one of the strongest chess […]
MIPHIDIC 