A contribution by a fellow (non-infectious diseases) colleague, with an offer of a small prize for one local (i.e. Singapore) medical student who provides the correct answer. Question: What is the clinical sign demonstrated in the photo and what are possible underlying causes? [Updated 11th February 2016] The patient in question had chemotherapy resulting in […]
The Singapore Chess Federation (SCF) held an extraordinary general meeting (EOGM) two nights ago at the Bishan Community Club. The event even made it into the mainstream newspaper. As can be seen from today’s news, the incumbents survived the leadership challenge, although the picture painted from the news report did not accurately reflect events on the […]
We move on from outpatient management of febrile neutropenia – which is backed by good science and is conceptually attractive but not straightforward to implement – to inpatient management of “high risk” (by MASCC or other criteria) febrile neutropenia, specifically in the area of antibiotic therapy. Here, there are a bewildering number of options (basically, […]
After the rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections fell in patients with febrile neutropenia, it became tacit knowledge to many oncologists (and haematologists) that the majority of patients with febrile neutropenia – especially those with solid organ cancers – recovered uneventfully. How could this knowledge be codified into a predictive model that could reliably separate out patients at […]
Chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia is a life-threatening condition that remains common during the therapy of haematological malignancies, but has become far rarer for patients with solid tumours because of the increased use of targeted therapy. It is traditionally defined as a single oral temperature of 38.3ºC or a temperature of greater than 38.0ºC sustained for more […]
The World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos is probably the largest and most important networking event in the world, regularly attended by political and business leaders from across the globe. For 11 years now, the WEF has published an annual list of what its experts perceive to be the most important global risks and how these […]
A young woman was recently diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. Post-resection, she was started on adjuvant 3-weekly docetaxol, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide. Ten days after the second cycle, she developed fever and headache, with temperature of up to 38.5 degrees Celsius. She had nausea, but no vomiting or diarrhoea. There was no contact or other significant history of […]
The SG50 infectious diseases project “Overcoming Infectious Diseases and Singapore: Past, Present and Future” was officially launched at the end of last year at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) Theatrette. The occasion was graced by the new Minister of State for the Ministries of Communications & Information, and Health, as well as the TTSH CEO, […]
It is the last day of 2015, and therefore timely to reflect back on the significant events of the year. Oftentimes, the true impact of certain events are not known until much later in the future, and media hype (or lack thereof) creates its own bias which is hard to overcome. Here is a personal […]
MIPHIDIC 