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TB not making a rapid comeback in Singapore

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  • TB not making a rapid comeback in Singapore

    Source: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore...k-in-Singapore

    TB not making a rapid comeback in Singapore
    by Ong Dai Lin
    04:45 AM Nov 10, 2011

    SINGAPORE - Despite recent media reports of three students in Bedok Town Secondary School diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB), the disease - a major public health problem in the '50s and '60s - is not making a rapid comeback.

    At a press conference yesterday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) explained that the three cases - reported by the school within the last six months - were not linked to one another.

    The MOH also clarified a report in The Straits Times on Monday, with the director of the communicable diseases division, Mr Jeffery Cutter, describing it as painting a "very misleading picture that a lot of our TB problems are from the foreigners, which is not correct".

    The report cited numbers which included "a whole lot of very short term visitors - applicants for work passes who are rejected and go home, people who specifically come to Singapore for TB treatment", Dr Cutter pointed out.

    "These numbers should not have been included in the comparison with the resident population," he said.

    Last year, TB affected 39 individuals out of every 100,000 in the population - the second-lowest incidence rate in Asia after Japan, which had 21 TB cases per 100,000 people.

    Dr Cutter said three-quarters of the TB cases in Singapore were found in the resident population and the remaining were from the non-resident population - corresponding with Singapore's demographics, where about a quarter of its population are foreigners.

    There is a discernible spike in the number of new TB cases involving work permit holders and applicants between 2007 and last year - a period which coincided with an influx of foreigners.

    During this period, the number of new TB cases involving work permit holders increased from 284 to 403, while those involving work permit applicants went up from 80 to 329.

    Dr Cutter stressed that it is "not so easy to get infected" with TB. There has to be "prolonged close contact" with a person with TB disease, he said.

    According to the MOH, about 90 per cent of those who are infected by the bacteria develop latent TB infection and never develop TB disease...
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