For the past several weeks, dengue has been in the news because of the surge in cases – the highest for the past several years. The National Environment Agency (NEA) has attributed this to three main factors: An increase in the Aedes aegypti (the primary vector for the dengue virus in Singapore) population in Singapore. […]
I was directed to this recently published Science article by a Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine clinician-scientist while we were discussing the Dengvaxia debacle. As highlighted in a previous post, Sanofi Pasteur had reported that dengue-naive people would be at higher risk of a more severe infection if they were infected with dengue following vaccination […]
Sanofi-Pasteur released a media report on 29 November, warning that dengue-naive people would be at higher risk of a more severe infection if they were infected with dengue following vaccination with Dengvaxia – Sanofi Pasteur’s dengue vaccine that is also licensed for use in Singapore. This warning was based on the analysis of 6 years […]
When I started work as a doctor, dengue was not as common as it is today, and it was alarming to watch the platelet counts crash during the course of the infection. Senior hospitalists would routinely leave standing orders for platelet transfusions, usually once the platelet count of the patients had fallen below some arbitrary […]
Dengvaxia (CYD-TDV) – the first licensed dengue vaccine – is a quadrivalent live attenuated chimeric dengue vaccine developed by Sanofi Pasteur. An attenuated yellow fever virus forms the backbone of the vaccine, with dengue structural proteins attached (the chimera). It has just been licensed in Singapore, and is approved for use in those between the ages […]
I was directed by the SGH microbiology blog‘s chief blogger to the Straits Times report yesterday detailing the National Environment Agency (NEA)’s tender for studying the effects of using Wolbachia-carrying male mosquitoes to combat dengue in Singapore. But what is Wolbachia? It is a fascinating genus of bacteria that exists solely as a parasitic (or in some cases mutualistic) […]
The inaugural Courage Fund ID Conference kicked off yesterday evening with a series of plenary lectures at the Marina Mandarin Hotel in Singapore. This clinical and basic science infectious diseases conference is a first for Singapore in many ways: It was organised in partnership by the Singapore Infectious Diseases Initiative, the Institute for Infectious Diseases […]
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 […]
MIPHIDIC 