This week marks World Antibiotic Awareness Week (16th-22nd November 2015), the third since its inception in 2013. It had its genesis in the European Antibiotic Awareness Day, which originated on 18th November 2008, as well as the U.S. “Get Smart about Antibiotics” week (originally in October 2008). It serves as a way to increase public awareness […]

After some work, we now have the majority of the video interviews for the SG50 Project on our own YouTube channel. It has really been an educational and gratifying experience interviewing all these people, and learning about the infectious diseases of the past and present. There are currently 35 videos available for public viewing. It […]

I have been neglecting this blog because of time pressures from the SG50 Project. That’s thankfully being wrapped up now, and life can slowly return to normal. In any case, here’s a staged video from the project about directly observed anti-tuberculosis therapy (DOTS) in Singapore. Unfortunately it is too onerous (not to mention potentially stigmatising) to […]

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet up with Dr Piotr Chlebicki of Singapore General Hospital (SGH), and we discussed antimicrobial stewardship over a beer (or two). Antimicrobial stewardship – a more nuanced and acceptable term than “antimicrobial control” – refers to any number of interventions in a hospital setting that aims to […]

We finally finished the last video interview on Thursday 15th October. There is very little time left to get the documentary and book out before the end of the year, and with the required viewership necessary to meet the KPI’s agreed upon by MCCY and ourselves. The source materials and the interview discussions have been […]

Nearing the end of the interviews at last, yet at the same time, realising that there remain significant gaps in terms of the people that should be interviewed: people who have seen, or initiated, or contributed to how infectious diseases changed or was controlled in Singapore. It is an SG50 project however, and the strict timeline […]

These pair of hands belong to a young woman who had fever for 2 days associated with sore throat.Her firstborn son had presented with similar symptoms a week ago. She had incidentally just discovered that she was pregnant, this being 6 weeks after her last menstrual period ending. Question: What is the diagnosis and what would be […]

We have finally crossed the midpoint in terms of recorded interviews for the SG50 Project! Thanks to the help of Dr. Vincent Pang from Tan Tock Seng Hospital, we have managed to complete interviews for the following: Dr. Ling Moi Lin – Singapore General Hospital. Dr. Jeffery Cutter – Ministry of Health. Dr. Andrea Kwa […]

It has been a while since I last updated on the local Group B Streptococcus (GBS) outbreak in Singapore that is linked to the consumption of raw bighead carp. The good news is that there has been a dramatic fall in the number of cases of severe GBS after the National Environment Agency (NEA) recommended […]

Another week has gone by and we have completed filming even more interviews, although still less than half of what we intend for the documentary. The team from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s CampusTV has really performed well and professionally. I would not hesitate to use them for future projects. In the past week, we have interviewed: […]