#AntibioticResistance IV: Antibiotic use in Agriculture and Other Industries

The potential use of penicillin as a medical treatment was only realized years after its discovery. Although known as the ‘miracle drug’ in medicine, it has also proven to have some ‘miraculous’ benefits in the animal husbandry industry. In the early 1940s, food shortage became an increasing concern. With the discovery of penicillin, the livestock…

#AntibioticResistance I: What is Antibiotic Resistance?

Before jumping in on the flurry of hashtags, smiley faces, or any ice-bucket challenges that may come from the anticipated excitement of the first World Antibiotic Awareness Week between November 16th and 22nd, we wanted to explore some important facts about antibiotic resistance and why it requires more of our attention. The word “antibiotic” means…

SPH2101 Randomized Controlled Trial on Healthy Eating

Phew, that was an extremely long month of data analysis! In August, our team decided to conduct a randomized controlled trial in one of our ungraduate public health classes. The title of our study was “Healthy Eating Using a Mobile App Among University Students in Singapore”. In order to gather the data that we needed,…

Marking #WorldPolioDay #endpolionow

We are currently halfway through the Decade of Vaccines, and what better time to reflect on this than during World Polio Day. This day is celebrated on October 24th each year, to mark the birthday of Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine in 1952. But this year, it carries a special significance; in…

Privacy and Confidentiality I

Recently, I had the privilege of attending an Ethical Review of Biomedical Research short course at the National University of Singapore. It was a brutal four days of discussing difficult case studies that Institutional Review Boards face regularly when reviewing the ethical grounds for biomedical scientific research. It brought up many interesting themes for me,…

In #Bangkok working on #flubarracks #influenza project

This week I have been in Bangkok visiting our virology colleagues at the United States Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), with whom we are collaborating on the Flu-Barracks study. AFRIMS Virology has had a presence in Thailand since the 1960s and has a long and distinguished history of medical research, having been…