It was reported that on Thursday (15 Aug), the Etern Medical Group which operates 4 clinics in Sengkang and Punggol published a government circular it had received on its Facebook page.
The circular, apparently from Ministry of Health (MOH), revealed that there has been an outbreak in typhoid fever in Singapore recently. As of 13 Aug, MOH has already been notified of 15 cases of typhoid fever locally:
At the time when the Etern Medical Group received the government circular, MOH avoided publicly informing members of the public about the typhoid outbreak.
A few hours after TOC published the news on the above MOH circular being posted by the Etern Medical Group on its Facebook page, the medical group took it down immediately but re-posted it later with a “sanctified” version, removing MOH’s name:
It’s not known why the medical group would want to mask out MOH’s name, the health authority of Singapore. It’s also not known if anyone in MOH had told the medical group to do so.
In any case, MOH and Singapore Food Agency (SFA) jointly issued a public statement yesterday (17 Aug) acknowledging the recent typhoid outbreak in Singapore. The number of cases as of yesterday was 18, 3 more than the 15 cases reported as of 13 Aug.
“As an added precaution, MOH has informed doctors through an alert to remain vigilant and report typhoid fever cases,” the statement said, indirectly acknowledging that the circular posted by Etern Medical Group on its Facebook page was from MOH.
