Pandemics in Singapore, 18192022

Singapore has faced many pandemics over the centuries, from smallpox and cholera to influenza and novel coronaviruses. By examining how different governments responded, this book considers what we can learn from their experiences.

Singapore has faced many pandemics over the centuries, from plague, smallpox and cholera to influenza and novel coronaviruses. By examining how different governments responded, this book considers what we can learn from their experiences. Public health strategies in the city-state were often affected by issues of ethnicity and class, as well as failure to take heed of key learnings from previous outbreaks. Pandemics are a recurrent and normal feature of the human experience. Alongside medical innovation and evidence-based policymaking, the study of history is also crucial in preparing for future pandemics.

Autorentext

Kah Seng Loh is a historian and director of a research consultancy.

Li Yang Hsu is an infectious diseases physician who is Vice-Dean of Global Health at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore.

Inhalt

List of Abbreviations

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

1 The Quarantine of the Trinity

2 Plague: An Endemic Sinbad

3 Smallpox: Racialising the Epidemic

4 Cholera and Remaking the City

5 The Infectious Diseases Hospital: Hanging Fire

6 1890 Flu: Poison at the Wharves

7 1918 Flu: Blind Spot in the Colonial System

8 1957 Flu: The Limits of Decolonisation

9 Swine Flu to Bird Flu: Epidemiology and Surveillance

10 The SARS Effect

11 COVID-19: A Culmination and a Departure of Sorts

Conclusion

The Authors

Bibliography

Index