Tonsil stones are small yellow particles that sit in small crypts or craters on the surface of your tonsils. The medical term for tonsil stones is tonsiloliths. Tonsils are small swellings that sit on the side walls of your throat. Tonsils have an irregular surface with little crypts. This gives them a pock-marked appearance. The picture below shows enlarged tonsils. In most people, tonsils…
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[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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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