On Monday, 9 March 2020, The Straits Times (ST) held a special edition of its Big Story panel discussion to focus on the COVID-19 outbreak and what lies ahead for Singapore. Moderated by ST senior health correspondent Ms Salma Khalik, the panel comprised four experts: Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, Director of Medical Services at theRead more
COVID-19: Big Story panel discussion with Singapore’s top experts Read More »
The World Health Organization wrote in a report: “China’s bold approach to contain the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic. These are the only measures that are currently proven to interrupt or minimise transmission chains in humans.” But WHO also stressed that there
COVID-19: Lockdown may not be feasible for all countries Read More »
The coronavirus continues to spread in countries beyond China, including Britain, Italy, Iran, South Korea and the United States. Despite raising the risk assessment to ‘very high at a global level’, the World Health Organization has expressed that containment of COVID-19 is still feasible and it does not yet constitute a pandemic. “I think they’re
COVID-19 in other parts of the world Read More »
Pre-packaged non-alcoholic drinks with high sugar or saturated fat content will be required to display a standardised nutrition label from end 2021 onwards. Called ‘Nutri-Grade’, the labels will enable consumers to compare different products by providing an at-a-glance summary of the nutritional quality of the drink, as well as the sugar level as a percentage
Pre-packaged drinks to be graded from end 2021 onwards Read More »
Ros McDermott is a Geography Major from the University of Birmingham who is in Singapore for a year. In addition to taking up public health modules for her exchange programme, she is also doing an internship with the School’s Public Health Translational Team (PHTT). Today we talk to her to find out more about what
Let’s Talk Public Health with Ros McDermott Read More »
HealthServe is a local non-governmental organisation that offers medical care, counselling, social assistance and other support to migrant workers in the community. At HealthServe’s clinics in Geylang, Mandai and Jurong, migrant workers are able to access medical care for only S$8. Since 2013, Associate Professor Jeremy Lim has been a volunteer at HealthServe. He started
Looking out for migrant workers, especially in public health crises Read More »
A little over two months since the coronavirus emerged, more than 92,000 people have been infected and over 3,000 have succumbed to it. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently raised the global risk assessment level to ‘very high’, but many have been questioning why it has yet to declare COVID-19 a pandemic. By definition, a
COVID-19: Why WHO hasn’t declared it a pandemic Read More »
Sun exposure increases risk of skin cancer, and various demographic factors influence sun safety behaviour.. In Singapore, although the local population spends less time under the sun as compared to Western populations, sun safety habits are not widely practised. Men, young adults, dark-skinned individuals and those with lower education levels are most vulnerable to poor
Local survey: Sun safety habits not widely practised in Singapore Read More »
While Singapore has managed to slow the spread of the disease, the virus continues to spread rapidly around the world. “Singapore’s approach of actively looking for new cases and quarantining close contacts has been effective in ring-fencing clusters of infection so far, and we have not seen evidence of community spread… However, it is premature
COVID-19: Premature to say worst is over in Singapore Read More »
Drawing on lessons learnt from SARS in 2003, Singapore confronted the COVID-19 outbreak with a cautious step-by-step approach. Since the virus spreads through contact with respiratory droplets (and there is currently no evidence of airborne transmission), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has discouraged the public from hoarding and wearing masks when they are not sick.
COVID-19: Step-by-step approach to deal with outbreak Read More »