Coronavirus COVID-19

Dear Goldenwhiskey, the Pneumococcal and Influenza vaccine is strongly recommended for certain groups of patients (e.g. age >65, with other medical conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, ischemic heart dieseases, etc). For a young healthy 54 year old, the vaccines are still recommended, as you can still be susceptible to the infections. Do not worry, as allergy to Chloroquin is not an contraindication towards the 2 above-mentioned vaccines. 

Dear @b_itchy Yes you will be issued a 5 days MC which is equivalent to an SHN if you present with upper respiratory tract infection.

If the clinic is a Public Health Preparedness Clinic, Swab and Send Home Clinic, patients aged 13 years and above will be offered to do a COVID-19 swab at your first presentation. Alternatively, you might be refered to another location to undergo the COVID-19 swab test.  
 
If you agree to undergo the swab, MC/ SHN duration will be minimum 3 days to allow time for the COVID-19 results to be out. Once the results are out, you can check the results on healthhub and you will receive an SMS from MOH. 

You will need to stay at home for the whole duration of 5 days MC or till you receive the COVID-19 swab result that says you are COVID-19 negative before you can leave your house. Hope this helps.

@tokkokking  No. There is no evidence that suggests that COVID vaccination affects Male or Female Fertility. Kindly refer to the link below. Hope this helps.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56012529#:~:text=Claims%20on%20social%20media%20that,bodies%20to%20attack%20the%20placenta.

Dear @Goldenwhiskey  The pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 Vaccine is not recommended for patients with a history of anaphylaxis or severe allergies as well as severe drug reactions. You might wish to discuss your suitability for the vaccination with the healthcare team administering the vaccine prior to receiving it. Hope this helps.

Dear @Fit-me7 The pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 Vaccine is not recommended for patients with a history of anaphylaxis or severe allergies as well as severe drug reactions. You might wish to discuss the degree of your allergy and your suitability for the vaccination with the healthcare team administering the vaccine prior to receiving it. Hope this helps.

Dear @Siti I do not forsee any added risk for you with regards to receiving the COVID-19 vaccination. You may continue your daily anti histamines before and after receiving the vaccination. Hope this helps.

Dear @Kelvin_tan Kindly note that he is advised to take his covid-19 vaccination at least 2 weeks after his influenza and pneumococcal vaccine today. Hope this helps you in scheduling his vaccination appt.

Dear @nomanmarsuni Your mother belongs to the high risk group as she is elderly and has chronic conditions like diabetes. She will have poorer outcome in the unfortunate event if she contracts covid-19. 

It is recommended that she undergoes the covid-19 vaccination. However the vaccination center will definitely check on her medical and medication history thoroughly to ensure that she is suitable for vaccination before proceeding. You may wish to proceed to book her Covid-19 vaccination. 

Please be reminded to press on her vaccination site longer as she is on blood thinners, to prevent a big bruise on the injection site. Hope this helps.

Dear @srmoore. You should seek medical attention if you are tested positive for COVID-19 and follow the prevailing medical advice by your country's COVID healthcare management team. This might vary from country to country. I would recommend you seek emergency attention if you have any shortness of breath, persistent fever that does not go away with anti-pyretics such as paracetamol or generally unwell. Do get well soon.

Hi @demarcus thats an interesting question, and yes - infection/inflammation in the nasal passage can irritate the nerves in the area leading to activation of the sneezing reflex. Inflammation is mediated in part by the release of histamines, which can occur with mast cell activation. As you said, the histamine then triggers the release of other downstream inflammatory chemicals which together lead to vasodilation (increased blood flow) and immune/white blood cells in the blood stream being activated to the area.

If you're still curious to find out more about mast cells and histamine, heres a resource with more information:  
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2015.00620/full#:~:text=In%20the%20skin%2C%20antigens%2C%20via,this%20can%20lead%20to%20angioedema.

Dear Wenda, a person's baseline body temperature may fluctuate quite a bit, depending on time of day, activity level, where the temperature was taken and the type of thermomter used!  However, T 38 is a fever, and there are so many causes: maybe viral, bacterial infections, or even some forms of cancer. 

I would strongly advise that someone with a fever (especially now with Covid-19), to please check for the nearest PHPC clinic, and call ahead to make an appointment. The attending doctor will need to assess, take a history, do a physical examination, and then advise accordingly. 
Stay well!

https://www.gov.sg/article/i-am-showing-respiratory-symptoms-where-should-i-go

https://www.flugowhere.gov.sg/

Hi @palmer , thank you for your question!

This is definitely one of the more recent debates regarding COVID. Unfortunately there isn't enough information available for us to definitively say that the infections in Beijing are a result of salmon imports. It is largely a possibility. As stated in the article, the virus itself was found on chopping boards in the market which, in all honesty, could have come from the population itself. Once more information is available then we can probably get a better idea of safety. 

The virus itself has not shown definitive cross species infection to fish thus far so I would say it is unlikely that it would spread from humans to fish and then back to humans. 

If you're really worried, then I would advise just to stay away from Salmon imported from Europe. 

Hope this helps!

Hi @Fiqah thats an interesting question! However, no medications (including antiretrovirals) have been proven in clinical studies to prevent (as relevant to your question) nor treat the COVID-19  virus to date. In fact, patients with HIV can have impaired immune systems, and may be at increased risk of poorer outcomes if they catch the infection.

Good evening @BusinessJing this is not true. Although it may appear that the virus has varied lethality based on differing reports of patients (e.g. those from the west versus those in China/other parts of Asia), this may largely be due to the varying quality of operational responses (like contact tracing/ lockdowns) and healthcare systems (as what you alluded to). There has been no evidence to confirm new strains yet.

The confusion is due to the different terminology for a new "strain" versus a new "isolate" (sample from a person). For a new strain to be confirmed, genetic tests and other laboratory reports of the virus itself are also required (aside from reports of patient outcomes). These will take some time given that it is a new infection. 

Although some reports have emerged that suggest different "strains", these actually refer to different "isolates" that have minor genetic variations with no confirmed change in the nature/properties of the virus. These are expected  variations, that can be seen with different "isolates" of a given virus that are taken from people that are spread across time and space. This can happen with viruses that "reproduce" by a method called RNA synthesis which sometimes makes these errors in their genetic code.

Whether or not these genetic variations confer new biological properties to the virus is what usually determines whether it should be labelled as a new "strain". Examples of these properties include new surface binding proteins that make it more lethal/contagious (which would justify it being termed a new "strain"). This requires more work to be confirmed (e.g. to differentiate phenomena such as "founder effect" from true selective pressure), and there is no conclusive evidence of new "strains" to date.

Hi @respect thats a great question! However this is still uncertain in the context of this new and ongoing pandemic. While researchers are fairly certain that the COVID-19 virus began as a zoonotic infection that likely started spread to humans from bats, it is not certain if it can spread to other animals and insects as mentioned. Ultimately, the best way to reduce your risk of catching the infection is through hand hygiene and wearing masks when exposed to others (or even animals) that are unwell.

The CDC echoes this uncertainty, and has also shared about a possible case of spread from humans to tigers/lions in a New York zoo here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html

Hi @BusinessJing thank you for your questions! There's alot to unpack here and I will try to answer them one by one. With respect to the role of benzalkonium chloride/quat, I am not able to identify any robust studies that support these conclusions. Also, the claims of "self-disinfecting" coat that I could find from companies online also are not substantiated by any robust evidence as you rightly pointed out. 

With regards to re-infections, studies are being conducted locally and abroad to understand this risk. One consideration is that existing reports of re-infections from other countries are based on the use of early versions of COVID-19 tests that became available at the start of the outbreak. These are imperfect with high rates of false positives/negatives reported in various cross-validation studies. 

Therefore, it is possible that the patient(s) in question may have had a false negative test, whereby subsequent testing was a true positive and may have wrongly led to the conclusion of re-infection. In other words, with studies still ongoing, it is still too early to make any conclusions about this. Fortunately in Singapore, we have taken a conservative approach to guard against this by only considering patients as "recovered" after multiple consecutive negative tests.

Long-term repercussions such as pulmonary fibrosis are driven by the disease rather than the context (aside from variations in national mortality rates), and will likely be the same in Singapore as they are elsewhere. The claim about vitamin D does not appear to be based on any definitive evidence that I can find.

Hi!

Thanks for your question and no worries it's not a silly question! Short answer to your question is no we are unlikely to contract the virus from the second hand smoke. 
If we are however standing close to a smoker, and he/she were to cough, those droplets released into the air are potentially infectious. 

Don't worry! Stay safe, mask up, wash up!