Scan of article & page[]
File:200TurnUpForFirstPublicMedicalConvention860428Page.jpg
Editable text of article[]
200 turn up for first public medical convention
MORE than 300 people attended the Singapore Medical Association's convention yesterday when it opened to the public tor the first time.
SMA President Dr Khoo Chong Tew said public education was a priority for the association this year. Hence members of the public were invited to attend the 17th National Medical Convention at the Shangri-La Hotel.
Dr K. V. Pillay delivered the 1986 SMA Lecture, Towards Excellence in Medicine. There were other talks on self-medication, Aids and other sexually-transmitted diseases, and diet and health.
According to Dr Edmund Lee, a senior lecturer with the Department of Pharmacology, National University of Singapore, self-medication is widespread in Singapore.
It involves taking medicine which can be bought without a doctor's prescription, and taking medicine prescribed for someone else.
Dr Lee said that just because a medicine can be bought with out a pre scription does not mean that it is completely safe. It may give rise to side effects, interact with other medicines prescribed by a doctor or mask symptoms of an underlying disease.
Consuming medicines meant for someone else is dangerous because there may be undesirable effects or it may aggravate the person’s illness, Dr Lee said.
Professor Feng Pao Hsii, Head of the Department of Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, said health screening means going for medical checkups when a man is apparently healthy and without disease symptoms.
Dr K. V. Ratnam, Senior Registrar of Middle Road Hospital, said tourism and the emergence of diseases such as Aids and genital herpes had altered the patterns of sexually-transmitted diseases in recent years.
The public's relatively conservative attitudes about homosexuality had insulated the population from Aids, Dr Ratnam said.
Doctors were also facing the challenge of treating cases of gonorrhoea which were drug resistant, he said. They had to come up with new treatment to keep ahead of the disease, he said.
Health authorities here were also monitoring chlamydia, a viral infection which could lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and female infertility.
Mrs O-H Rasmussen, consultant therapeutic nutritionist with Gleneagles, said heart disease, cancer and diabetes were major killers here.
Foundation stone laying
THE Minister of State (Health and Foreign Affairs), Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, will attend the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Health Ministry's new skin disease centre, tomorrow.
The centre will be built on vacant land along Moulmein Road within the compound of Tan Tock Seng Hospital. The centre will replace the Middle Road Hospital and the Irrawaddy Road Skin Clinic.
See also[]
- Archive of "Three in S’pore found with Aids-linked virus", The Straits Times, 10 April 1985
- Archive of "Aids virus: Doctor who 'found it'", The Sunday Times, 14 April 1985
- Archive of "Aids on ‘must report’ list", The Straits Times, 17 April 1985
- Archive of "Undergrads to be taught about Aids", The Straits Times, 21 April 1885
- Archive of "16 more may be carriers of Aids virus", The Straits Times, 30 April 1985
- Archive of "Special lab to do Aids tests soon", The Straits Times, 18 May 1985
- Archive of "Man with Aids related virus in hospital", The Straits Times, 21 July 1985
- Archive of "Ministry steps up Aids drive", The Straits Times, 5 September 1985
- Archive of "S’pore-Stanford research tie-up bid", The Straits Times, 10 October 1985
- Archive of "Aids: 20,000 cleared", The Straits Times, 29 November 1985
- Archive of "Screening tests likely to uncover more Aids carriers", The Straits Times, 1 May 1986
- Archive of "Aids claims first victim here", The Straits Times, 11 April 1987
- Archive of "Fear of Aids pushes up condom sales", The Straits Times, 19 April 1987
- Archive of "Govt dental clinics phasing out boiling", The Straits Times, 1 October 1987
- Earliest cases of HIV/AIDS in Singapore
- HIV/AIDS in Singapore's LGBT community
- Paddy Chew
- Avin Tan
- Ajmal Khan
- Calvin Tan
- Adrian Tyler
References[]
- [[Kong Sook Chin], "200 turn up for first public medical convention", The Straits Times, 28 April 1986[].
Acknowledgements[]
This article was archived by Roy Tan.