Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Surveillance and Containment Measures for the First 100 Patients with COVID-19 in Singapore - January 2-February 29, 2020.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and has since spread globally, resulting in >95,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide by March 5, 2020 (1). Singapore adopted a multipronged surveillance strategy that included applying the case definition at medical consults, tracing contacts of patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, enhancing surveillance among different patient groups (all patients with pneumonia, hospitalized patients in intensive care units [ICUs] with possible infectious diseases, primary care patients with influenza-like illness, and deaths from possible infectious etiologies), and allowing clinician discretion (i.e.

Seroprevalence of vaccine-preventable diseases among children and adolescents in Singapore: Results from the National Paediatric Seroprevalence Survey 2018.

Objectives: The Ministry of Health (MOH), Singapore, conducted the National Paediatric Seroprevalence Survey 2018 (NPSS 2018) to estimate the latest immunity levels against measles, rubella, varicella, diphtheria, tetanus and hepatitis B, and the seroprevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriage in children and adolescents in Singapore.

Methods: The survey involved prospective collection of residual sera from 1,200 children and adolescents aged 1-17 years in two public acute hospitals. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (EIA) or plague reduction neutralisation tests (PRNT) were used to determine the seroprevalence of the vaccine-preventable diseases.

Estimates of influenza-associated hospitalisations in tropical Singapore, 2010-2017: Higher burden estimated in more recent years.

Background: We previously estimated Singapore's influenza-associated hospitalisation rate for pneumonia and influenza (P&I) in 2010-2012 to be 29.6 per 100 000 person-years, which corresponds to 11.2% of all P&I hospitalisations.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine during respiratory outbreaks in Singapore's long term care facilities, 2017.

Influenza outbreaks occur periodically in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) and vaccination is critical in preventing influenza infections. We evaluated the influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) during respiratory outbreaks in LTCFs reported to the Ministry of Health, Singapore in 2017. A test-negative design was used to estimate the ratio of the odds of testing positive for influenza among vaccinated individuals to the odds among unvaccinated individuals.

A 15-year review of dengue hospitalizations in Singapore: Reducing admissions without adverse consequences, 2003 to 2017.

Objectives: Since the 1990s, Singapore has experienced periodic dengue epidemics of increasing frequency and magnitude. In the aftermath of the 2004-2005 dengue epidemic, hospitals refined their admission criteria for dengue cases to right-site dengue case management and reduce the burden of healthcare utilization and negative outcomes. In this study, we describe the national trends of hospital admissions for dengue and disease severity in terms of length of stay (LOS), admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and death in hospital, and case fatality rate (CFR) in Singapore.

Particulate air pollution on cardiovascular mortality in the tropics: impact on the elderly.

Background: Air pollution has a significant health impact. Most data originate from temperate regions. We aim to study the health impact of air pollution, particularly among the elderly, in a tropical region.

Differential age-specific distribution of influenza virus types and subtypes in tropical Singapore, 2011 to 2017.

Surveillance and reporting of epidemiological features of seasonal influenza mostly are aggregates across all-ages. We investigated age-specific differences in distribution of influenza virus (sub)types in tropical Singapore, using laboratory-confirmed virological data collected under the national influenza surveillance programme from 2011 to 2017. The proportion of influenza-positive specimens from outpatients with influenza-like illness was used as an indicator of influenza activity in the community.

The 2016 Singapore Zika virus outbreak did not cause a surge in Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Although individuals with Zika virus (ZIKV) antibodies were reported in Malaya in mid-1950s, entomological and human surveillance in Singapore did not identify autochthonous transmission until the outbreak of August-November, 2016. A total of 455 cases from 15 separate clusters were identified. We asked if this ZIKV outbreak increased the incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and aimed to characterize these cases.