Singapore

Hsa suspends licence of Zerin 500mg paracetamol tablets

today tuesday september 20, 2011

18

The Health Sciences authority (HSa) has suspended the licence of Zerin 500mg tablets due to product defects in some tablets. although the health risk to consumers is low, the HSa said it is suspending the licence of the tablets used for the relief of fever and pain

to prevent the exposure of members of the public to a product that is not compliant to quality standards. Zerin contains paracetamol and is available as an over-the-counter medicine. all sales and distribution of Zerin tablets have been discontinued from public healthcare institutions, private

medical clinics and pharmacies. Four reports of product defects have been investigated last month, where some tablets were found to contain small foreign particles. Consumers are advised to stop consuming the product, but those who have should not be alarmed as its defect poses low risk to their health.

Data to be collected to improve healthcare

tan WeiZHen
weizhen@mediacorp.com.sg

SINGAPORE Over the next five years, some 50,000 Singaporeans will have their lifestyles and attitudes towards healthcare tracked, in a project to collect data to develop more effective, prevention-based healthcare. A initiative by the new Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS), simulations will be run on the data collected to show the effects of existing policies, which will help in fine-tuning them. With data to be collected from the various races here, Singapore will be a good testbed, as the data can be mapped for the rest of Asia, said dean designate Professor Chia Kee Seng at the launch of the school yesterday. Through house-to-house visits, a voluntary questionnaire will be put to the residents, covering topics such as lifestyle, perceptions towards health, and knowledge. Where respondents are agreeable, they will be brought for a screening and blood samples will be taken. The system used to collate the data will run on a budget of S$7 million a year. The project and the school are part of the shift towards prevention-based healthcare in Singapore, where the focus will be on the population rather than the individual.

Prevention at an individual level is quite straightforward but prevention at a population level is much more complex, Prof Chia said. The school will go beyond studying the causes of diseases and treating them, and bring together different disciplines and different sectors in the community to address prevention.

The project and school are part of the shift towards preventionbased healthcare in Singapore, where the focus will be on the population rather than the individual.
The school created from the existing Department of Epidemiology and Public Health in the School of Medicine will also train future doctors and conduct research in four areas: Epidemiology, biostatistics, health services and policy research, and health behaviour and promotion. At the launch, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong noted three challenges in the public health landscape: The emergence of lifestyle-related diseases with an ageing population, the threat of infectious diseases, and the need to develop leaders in the area of public health.