[This article appeared in the July 2020 issue of Medical Connect, a newsletter produced by Eisai Singapore] Sore throats are very common and make up a substantial proportion of GP visits in Singapore. The most common cause of a sore throat is a viral pharyngitis that will respond well to supportive treatment with analgesics and gargles. A small percentage of sore throats are…
Continue Reading →

It was uplifting to wake up this morning to some good news about the candidate Coronovirus vaccine from the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford. The vaccine – known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or AZD1222 holds some promise. The paper published yesterday in the Lancet is free to view and I have attached it below for those of you who have a…
Continue Reading →

Nice one page information piece on COVID-19 for patients from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

Sinusitis is the inflammation of the paranasal sinuses. The paranasal sinuses are bony cavities within the skull that communicate with the nasal cavity. The passage from these sinuses to the nose is often narrow and any inflammation of the lining of these passages can cause obstruction. When sinusitis is prolonged and lasts more than 12 weeks, we use the term chronic sinusitis. Chronic…
Continue Reading →

As countries emerge from their lockdowns and the death toll from Covid-19 recedes, it seems like an appropriate time to look back at the start of this pandemic and ask painful questions and face some hard truths. Indeed, at the recent World Health Assembly, the WHO committed itself to a review of the causes of this pandemic and how the organization responded…
Continue Reading →

ENT surgeons spend a lot of time seeing patients with sinusitis. In fact, I dare say, that the bulk of the work of a general ENT surgeon is seeing patients with some manifestaton of sinus disease. Indeed nasal sprays are probably the most common medication we prescribe. Allergies or allergic rhinitis which predisposes to sinusitis is often dealt with effectively in primary…
Continue Reading →