News about the G-7 Leaders’ Summit in Germany was somewhat overshadowed by the news about the South Korea MERS-CoV outbreak, at least in this part of the world. However, antimicrobial resistance was on the agenda, and can be found in the joint declaration by the leaders of G-7. The Annex to the Declaration can be found […]
There are currently 108 confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection in South Korea, with 9 deaths. The youngest person that has died to date is a 57-year-old woman hospitalised at St. Mary’s Hospital at Pyeongtaek, whereas the eldest is an 82-year-old man at Kon Yang University Hospital. Transmission has been reported at a 7th healthcare institution […]
The MERS-CoV outbreak in South Korea has expanded to 50 cases with 4 deaths as of 5th June 2015. I have not included a transmission tree this time as the details of 7 of the 9 cases reported yesterday are not available. The Ministry of Health Singapore had announced on 3rd June 2015 that patients […]
Other than the WHO statements, there are a number of English websites tracking the South Korean MERS-CoV outbreak, the most updated ones being Avian Flu Diary and the Flutrackers forum. CIDRAP also provides fairly detailed coverage. The case count is now apparently at 35 (as of 3rd June 2015) with 2 deaths, and I have […]
The evolving outbreak of the Middle-East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in South Korea is the largest to date outside the Middle Eastern countries, involving 12 persons to date (including one that had – ignoring the advice of South Korean health officials – flown to Hong Kong on 26th May and then to Huizhou via Shenzhen […]
There is a lot of interesting data available on tuberculosis (TB) in Singapore, available from multiple sources. I was quite privileged to receive a copy of Dr Heng Bee Hoon’s (Director, Health Services and Outcome Research, National Healthcare Group) 1988 Master of Science in Public Health thesis “The Secular Trends of Tuberculosis in Singapore” from the […]
To complete the MRSA discussion, it is necessary to mention the final group of MRSA – livestock-associated MRSA (LA-MRSA). Just as healthcare-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) and community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) are (at least initially) distinct from each other via differences in their genetic make-up, LA-MRSA represents yet another separate path of evolution for MRSA, with its own […]
Dr. Raymond Fong – a consultant infectious diseases at Changi General Hospital – had commented in response to my earlier post on legal aspects of tuberculosis management that one other challenging issue sometimes faced by doctors was with regards to air travel and tuberculosis. There have been a number of incidents regarding passengers and crew members of […]
The standard short-course therapy for pulmonary tuberculosis involves taking 4 to 5 different medications for 6 months, and both duration of therapy and medication count (normally about 10 or so pills each day) can be significantly increased as a consequence of drug resistance and/or drug intolerance requiring a change of regimen. Compliance to anti-tuberculosis therapy can […]
The Department of Sexually Transmitted Infections Control (DSC) clinic is also colloquially known as Kelantan Clinic (and keying “kelantan clinic” into Google or other search engines leads you to the DSC Clinic website rather than any clinic within the Malaysian state of Kelantan), because it has been located at Kelantan Lane since its official launch […]
MIPHIDIC 