‘IN CONVERSATION’ with A/P Vernon Lee– “Living with Infectious Diseases: Preparing and Responding to Threats to Our Society”

Infectious diseases is a global health security threat, and pose a public health challenge to Singapore due to the substantial travel and trade in our globally-connected city. Preparedness and response to infectious diseases is a complex issue that requires all-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to address. This talk focused on the experiences and lessons learnt from epidemics in Singapore such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, pandemic influenza in 2009, and recent threats from avian influenza, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Ebola. A/P Lee discussed the real-world issues that face our society, including the geographical, socio-economic, and political influences, and the approaches and mindset that is required to successfully prevent and mitigate these threats.