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Warmer temperatures enhance the growth of mosquito larvae and cause them to grow into adult mosquitoes faster, said Assistant Professor Vincent Pang, Director, Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research (CIDER). “Some studies showed that warmer temperatures may also increase the number of eggs laid per mosquito,” he added. In addition to hot weather and the increase in Aedes mosquito population, low herd immunity could also be one of the main reasons for the spike in cases this year. Professor Leo Yee Sin, Executive Director of the National Centre forRead more

To understand the current dengue outbreak, Associate Professor Alex Cook, Vice Dean (Research), revisits the situation in the years following Singapore’s independence and explains how the virus was limited in its transmission in the next few decades. Fifty years ago, it was limited by number of people to infect, as most people had already been infected and were immune to the virus. As the country developed one of the world’s best vector control programmes, transmission was limited by availability of both people and mosquitoes to infect. Over the years, itRead more

Singapore is seeing one of the worst dengue seasons in several years, with more cases so far this year than the last two years combined. Assistant Professor Vincent Pang, Director, Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research (CIDER), attributed the rise of dengue clusters in certain areas to three factors: 1) greater clustering of households within a residential area, 2) low cluster herd immunity, and 3) high frequency of residents travelling to dengue-endemic countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. He added that areas with a greater numberRead more

On 15-18 July 2019, a delegation of nine SSHSPH faculty members travelled to Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, to learn more about the public health issues facing the country, as well as how the Lao people are working towards overcoming them. They were joined by two members of Thailand’s Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP). The group was hosted by Dr Sengchanh Kounnavong, Director of the Lao Tropical and Public Health Institute. They also had the opportunity to visit the National Tuberculosis Centre, Nutrition Center and Maternal & ChildRead more

Held on 24-28 June, the NUS Initiative to Improve Health in Asia Leadership Development Programme (NIHA LDP) 2019 was organised by the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, and co-hosted by National Health Foundation Thailand, the Access and Delivery Partnership (ADP) and the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI). More than 70 senior regulators, health policymakers and practitioners from 18 countries took part in the programme with the theme ‘Advancing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through the use of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) for health care priority setting and reimbursement’. The programme coveredRead more

Faculty, alumni, current students and graduands gathered on 11 July for an evening of reunion and celebration at SSHSPH AlumNite 2019 held at Park Avenue Rochester Hotel. Vice Dean (Education), Associate Professor Jeannette Lee addressed the graduands, congratulating them on their achievements and for completing their studies. She also shared her hopes that they would stay in touch and return for future AlumNites, this time as alumni. This year, alumna Ms Petrina Ho (MPH ’12) was invited to share about her SSHSPH education and public health experience. Ms Ho isRead more

The NUS-NUHS-MIT Healthcare AI Datathon and Expo 2019 will be held this week from 17 to 21 July 2019. Assistant Professor ‘Mornin’ Feng Mengling is leading the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Datathon segment for the third year now. He talks to us about some of the successes of the past two years and more broadly about his work at the School. Pictured above is Mornin (1st from right) at last year’s Datathon Tell us more about the AI Datathon. To be successful in healthcare computer science, there needs to be closeRead more

It was a memorable day for the Class of 2019 as our graduating students marked a significant milestone at the SSHSPH Commencement Ceremony on 12 July. Held at the University Cultural Centre, 38 Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) graduates received their degrees from Presiding Officer Mr Gautam Banerjee, NUS Pro-Chancellor. The ceremony was jointly hosted by the School of Computing. Guest of Honour, Mr Chng Kai Fong, Managing Director, Economic Development Board, addressed the graduates, congratulating them on their achievements. HeRead more

As we celebrate our graduating students at today’s Commencement Ceremony, we spoke to Associate Professor Jeannette Lee, Vice Dean (Education), about the School’s education programmes and the future direction of education here. Pictured above is A/Prof Jeannette Lee with Prof Tan Eng Chye, NUS President (2nd from left) and Prof Ho Teck Hua, NUS Senior Deputy President and Provost (1st from right) at the SSHSPH Booth at NUS Open Day 2019. Tell us about the School’s education programmes. Public health is everyone’s business and we need people with a diverseRead more

Singapore has the largest menthol tobacco market in the world. Half of the cigarettes sold here are flavoured with menthol. In her research of leaked internal tobacco industry documents, Dr Yvette van der Eijk, Senior Research Fellow, found that, in Singapore, tobacco companies used menthol cigarettes to target teenagers. She believes that a ban on tobacco flavours could help to reduce the smoking rates among Singaporean youth. Other territories like Canada, Brazil, Turkey, the European Union and parts of the United States are now banning tobacco flavours. Research so farRead more

Award-winning Singaporean cartoonist Sonny Liew and Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, Programme Leader (Infectious Diseases) have collaborated to produce a comic book titled ‘The Antibiotic Tales’. The comic covers the topic of antimicrobial resistance — the ability of microbes to evolve and resist the drugs used to kill them. “While antimicrobial resistance is a major global public health threat, it is not well understood by the public,” said A/Prof Hsu. “The problem is not just in human medicine, but also in how food animals are raised and how waste is recycled orRead more

More than 5,400 people in Singapore have been infected by dengue so far this year, which is more than four times the figure in the same period last year. For every infected person who shows symptoms, there are up to 10 others who are infected but suffer a mild form of the illness, and do not go to a doctor. Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, Programme Leader (Infectious Diseases), said it is “clear that we are in the midst of a dengue epidemic”. “June is also the ‘traditional’ start ofRead more