News

Negotiations for a new international Pandemic Agreement recently concluded without consensus among World Health Organisation (WHO) member states.

This is concerning as the world has faced at least six pandemics, fuelled by the ease and frequency of international travel, in the last two decades.

ASM Microbe 2024, the annual conference of the American Society for Microbiology, took place in Atlanta (Georgia, USA) from 13 to 17 June 2024.

It is the largest microbiology conference globally. With over 6000 attendees, it was a meeting of minds amongst scientists and physicians from hospital microbiology labs, technology companies, government and academia. The School was an exhibitor, led by Assoc Prof Yann Felix Boucher. Together with Dr Anna Szuecs from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, they presented the Lockdown! Game which was popular with delegates and flew off the shelves.

The innovative card game was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to educate the public about how specific public health measures address the pandemic and how global cooperation is essential in addressing these issues.

Assoc Prof Boucher also paid visit to Dr Christine Lee at the CDC, head of the reference laboratory for enteric pathogens and did a presentation the effects of climate change on vibriosis.

On 14 June 2024, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the School and Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) to formalise the partnership between the two entities.

The signatories were Dean, Prof Teo Yik Ying, and Ambassador Morikawa Toru, Executive Director of ASEF. It was witnessed by His Excellency Mr Ishikawa Hiroshi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Singapore, Embassy of Japan, and Professor Leo Tan, ASEF Governor from Singapore.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has rejected “egregious and false claims” that COVID-19 vaccinations are the cause of severe side effects including excessive deaths.

Rebutting these claims, MOH said that there is a need to draw the right conclusions and follow scientific evidence on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. It added that, while there are side effects to any vaccination, scientific evidence overwhelmingly shows that protection from vaccines outweighs the side effects.

Hear from Professor Hsu Li Yang as he shares his views on the vaccine.

ongratulating to our SSHSPH Faculty Awards AY2022/2023 recipients.

Asst Prof Hannah Clapham, Dr Cecilia Teng and Asst Prof Saima Hilal have been awarded the SSHSPH Teaching Excellence Award AY2022/2023, which recognises faculty members who have excelled in teaching, and have shown a high level of performance, dedication and commitment to teaching and learning.

Asst Prof Yvette van der Eijk is the recipient of the SSHSPH Young Researcher Award for AY2022/2023. This award recognizes junior faculty members who have demonstrated great potential in research and achieved research excellence.

Congratulations to Assoc Prof Luo Nan for winning the HPHSR Clinician Scientist Award (HCSA) (Senior Investigator)at the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) Talent Awards 2024.

This prestigious award recognises senior clinician scientists who have demonstrated sustained, high levels of productivity and leadership in this field. It is designed to support research work in Health Promotion, Preventive Health, Population Health, and Health Services Research (HPHSR), with the goal of creating significant and lasting impact on the nation’s health outcomes.

The third instalment of the Southeast Asia Health Security Roundtable Series took place from 24 to 25 May 2024 at Parkroyal On Beach Road. Themed “Leadership and Communication in Major Epidemics”, the roundtable aims to support regional and national capacities for detecting and responding effectively to infectious disease outbreaks by fostering regional dialogue on health security.

The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2024 is “Protecting children from tobacco industry interference” to protect our future generations.

In spite of decades of public education about the harms of smoking, the #tobacco industry continues to employ marketing tactics and lobbying efforts to downplay the risks and addict new generations to tobacco.

In a Lancet publication, Assistant Professor Yvette van der Ejik and her team found that many countries, particularly low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), are well-positioned for the #tobaccoendgame but lack explicit targets. To achieve the tobacco endgame, strong political and public support is vital, alongside denormalising the tobacco industry.

Antibiotics are a global public good that prolong lives, reduce disabilities, and enable other life-saving medical interventions such as surgery. Antimicrobial resistance threatens this backbone of modern medicine, and is estimated to have contributed to almost 5 million deaths in 2019 alone. As the world’s set of effective antibiotics narrow, the very young, very old and severely ill will be the ones to suffer the most, even in Singapore and other high-income countries.

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Swapnil Mishra on being conferred the NUS Presidential Young Professorship (PYP) award – making him the first Presidential Young Professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH). The prestigious PYP award is designed to help the University attract and retain the most talented and promising early career academics, enabling them to develop into world-class scholars.