CovidSafe App – should we install the app?

CovidSafe

11th May 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo

Although the Covid-19 pandemic seems to be under some control, we are still in danger of a second wave if we relaxed the social distancing rules too much too quickly. One of the big unknowns is what is the proportion of people with SARS-COV-2 who are asymptomatic? These are the people we are not testing.…

Paediatric Radiology – the tale of two cysts

28th April, Spectrum Radiology

This month’s radiology series is brought to you by Dr Chee Chung Hiew, a Paediatric Radiologist at Spectrum Medical Imaging.

In Case 1, we have a 7 year-old girl with a 3 week history of headache, lethargy and vomiting. She woke up one morning with severe vomiting and presented to ED.

In Case 2, a 6.5 year-old girl had headaches for 2 months.…

Coronary revascularisations – do they save lives?

28th April 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo

The incidence and mortality from coronary artery disease in Australia continue to decline. Coronary revascularisation consisting of percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is rapidly increasing as the standard of care for coronary artery disease. There have been numerous trials comparing CABG with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and so far, no studies have convincingly shown any overall difference between the two revascularisation strategies.…

Covid-19 – how many are asymptomatic?

26th April 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo

Although the Covid-19 pandemic seems to be under some control, we are still in danger of a second wave if we relaxed the social distancing rules too much too quickly. One of the big unknowns is what is the proportion of people with SARS-COV-2 who are asymptomatic? These are the people we are not testing.…

Diabetes and Covid-19 – the disease doesn’t take a break

11th April 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo

You are probably overwhelmed by the whole Covid-19 saga. Just because we are dealing with Covid-19 “everywhere”, doesn’t mean existing chronic diseases can take a breather. Patients with chronic illness especially diabetes and hypertension are affected by the current Covid-19 chaos in more ways then one. GPs play a vital role in managing these patients during this difficult and challenging time especially when there is much emphasis on telehealth.…

Covid-19 – to ACEi or not to ACEi?

10th April 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo

It’s amazing how quickly news travel during a pandemic. A bit of information came out a few weeks ago that suggests SARS-CoV-2 enters the body via the angiotensin converting enzyme receptor 2 (ACE2) present in abundance in pulmonary tissues. Initial reports out of Wuhan found that patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and hypertension were at higher risks of getting the infection as well as developing the severe form of Covid-19 if they do get the infection.…

Fighting Covid-19 – do you want to be a hero?

We all have that warm fussy feeling inside every time they talk about the frontline “heroes”. You say “that’s me”. We all contribute towards the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK recently acknowledge the hardworking frontline health care workers (HCWs) with the “clap hands for frontline workers” campaign to acknowledge the dangerous work that we do. That’s what we sign up for – to save human lives.…

Covid-19 – can’t swab? Can xrays help?

We all know how restricted the criteria for swabbing patients for Covid-19. You may consider perhaps, a chest rays may help. Although there are lots of studies describing the “classic” ground glass appearance on CXR or Chest CT, Unfortunately, in practical terms, they are not useful. It may actually endanger your radiology colleagues and their staff unless we work as a team during this difficult period.…

Covid-19 treatment – why chloroquine?

28th March 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo

Covid-19 belong to the subfamily Coronavirinae in the family of Coronaviridae of the order Nidovirales, and this subfamily includes four genera: α-coronavirus, β-coronavirus, γ-coronavirus, and δ-coronavirus. The new 2019 nCoV (or Covid-19), which belongs to β-coronavirus can infect the lower respiratory tract and cause pneumonia in humans, but it seems that the symptoms are milder than SARS and MERS.…

Covid-19 – who should we swab?

25th March 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo

They tell us that patients need to have 1) returned from overseas (any country will do now) OR been in contact with someone confirmed to have coronavirus infection AND 2) Flu symptoms with FEVER before we swab for Covid-19. Otherwise, we just reassure the patient that no they can’t have the swab and yes, they probably don’t have coronavirus infection.…

Covid-19 – reporting from primary care frontline

I told you last week that I am no expert and despite that I did write an article about the coronavirus. Well, I am doing that again this week but this time with a little more information and little bit more “expertise”. We have been getting oodles of feeds from many sources and I don’t know about you, but, all these bulletins really don’t help us working at the frontline.…

Coronavirus disaster plan – is there one?

14th March 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo

I have been holding off writing about the coronavirus so far as I didn’t think that I have the expertise. I would be out of my depth. It’s been coming up to three months since the world woke up to Wuhan. It’s been 6 weeks since Australia banned all flights from China. It was only a matter of time before the virus run rampant in Australia causing mayhem.…