Young and tired

[picture source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shesjack/2700073515/]

Query from Mrs KT Lim

My 12-year-old daughter has a fatigue issue. She feels lethargic all the time and requires more than 10 hours, at times 14 hours, of rest. She is not overweight and does not snore when she sleeps, so I have ruled out poor-quality sleep. When she was less than eight months old, she rolled and fell from the bed. Most girls her age have reached, or are reaching, puberty, but she has yet to experience any changes. I wonder if these factors are causing her to be tired all the time. Or, could she be suffering from some underlying medical problems?

Reply by Dr Chan Poh Chong

Head and Senior Consultant, Division of Ambulatory and Adolescent Paediatrics, University Children's Medical Institute, National University Hospital

The fall she had when she was eight months old is unlikely to have caused her current symptoms. And a proportion of young girls start puberty only when they are 12 to 14 years of age. Obesity and poor-quality sleep caused by an obstructed airway can also contribute to lethargy and tiredness, but in her case, it is less likely.

Other causes of prolonged fatigue and tiredness could be anaemia, either from blood loss or decreased production, or poor dietary intake; infections - some, such as dengue, can cause prolonged lethargy and tiredness; hormonal problems, such as hypothyroidism or diabetes mellitus; chronic illnesses, such as kidney or liver diseases; lack of exercise or excessive physical exertion.

Stresses in balancing school work, CCAs and social/recreational activities could also lead to anxiety, depression, withdrawal from social contact and, consequently, chronic fatigue.

Sometimes, there may be no underlying cause found after extensive investigations, and a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, which could inflict a child for a prolonged period of time, may be offered.

Consult a doctor to ensure that any underlying medical problem is excluded and appropriate lifestyle changes instituted to get the child back to her normal, healthy state. Think a balanced diet with sufficient fruits and vegetables, regular and appropriate exercises, and a conducive school and home environment for mental and social well-being.

The information provided above is for your general knowledge only. You should seek medical advice or treatment for your condition. Email questions to health@newstoday.com.sg.

[SOURCE: http://www.todayonline.com]

Temasek bullish on mining

SINGAPORE sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings wants to increase its exposure to mining in Mongolia and is also looking for opportunities to invest in the mining sector in Africa.

'We made investments in Mongolia and we are fairly bullish about Mongolia,' said Mr Nagi Hamiyeh, managing director of investments at Temasek, on the sidelines of a mining conference in Singapore on Tuesday.

'We believe that Mongolia is starting its journey in the mining space so that would be one of the many countries that we would look at.' Mongolia is treading cautiously as it taps its huge mineral wealth.

Temasek was one of the cornerstone investors for the $439 million Hong Kong IPO of Mongolia-focused miner SouthGobi Energy Resources in January. It also holds a stake worth $150 million in Lung Ming, which owns and operates the Eruu Gol iron ore mine in Mongolia, according to its latest annual report.

But Temasek has not been as aggressive as sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC), which has invested billions of dollars in resources deals in Indonesia, Singapore and Mongolia.

Temasek CEO Ho Ching said last year that the state investor was interested in resources as an asset class. Energy and resources made up just 5 per cent of Temasek's portfolio, as of March 2009. It managed $122 billion in total as of end-July. -- THOMSON REUTERS

S'pore inflation rises in Feb

SINGAPORE'S inflation rose for a second month in February due to higher food and transport costs.

The consumer price index rose 1 per cent from a year earlier, and was up by 0.6 per cent from January on a seasonally adjusted basis, said the Department of Statistics on Tuesday.

Food prices rose by 0.7 per cent in February due to dearer prepared meals, fresh seafood and chilled pork during the Chinese New Year period, while communication cost rose 2.2 per cent mainly from higher internet subscription fees.

Excluding accommodation costs, the CPI went up by 0.5 per cent last month.

Compared to a year ago, inflation was up by 1 per cent, reflecting higher costs of transport, food and education.

Transport cost surged by 7.6 per cent from a year ago because of higher car and petrol prices, while food prices crept up by 1.2 per cent.

Singapore last month lowered its inflation forecast for this year to 2-3 per cent from the previous 2.5 to 3.5 per cent due to a rebasing of the consumer price index.

[SOURCE: http://www.straitstimes.com]

Singer hurt in freak accident

LOCAL jazz singer Marina Xavier's right leg was crushed by a taxi in a freak accident which occurred last Saturday as she was alighting from the cab, The New Paper reported on Tuesday.

The 51-year-old veteran singer had taken a Comfort taxi to St James Power Station's Bellini Room where she performs every Saturday at 10 pm.

About 10 minutes before Ms Xavier was due to go on stage, the singer found herself lying on the road, with her right leg crushed by one of the taxi's tyres.

She told TNP that after running over her leg, the taxi reversed and ran over the same part of her leg again.

She was rushed to Singapore General Hospital and checks showed two badly fractured bones in her lower right leg.

[SOURCE: http://www.straitstimes.com]

Eyes: Windows to one's health

SINGAPORE - The eye says a lot about the body. For example, damaged blood vessels in the retina can warn of damage in the brain, heart or kidneys.

In a few months, four polyclinics will use a retina imaging service - taking a picture of patients' eyes - to screen for conditions like diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and heart diseases.

The three are in Outram, Bukit Merah and Clementi, while the fourth will be made known later.

Cholesterol and diabetes levels have traditionally been key indicators of cardiovascular diseases. But these methods fail to detect half the patients who are at high-risk.

This is set to change, however, with the pilot project which will focus on glaucoma.

Glaucoma is one of the more important diseases to be picked up, as 90 per cent of the people who have it are not aware of it, said Professor Wong Tien Yin, director of the Singapore Eye Research Institute.

The imaging technology has shown that it is able to pick up glaucoma between 80 and 90 per cent of the time, he said. In future, there will also be more "accurate information" so that doctors can decide whether surgery should be done.

The information will also be useful for patients who can decide what they should do.

An initial 3,000 patients will be selected for the retina imaging service when they go for their normal health screening.

Their eye images will be sent to the new Singapore Advanced Imaging Laboratory for Ocular Research (Sailor) for analysis.

The preliminary screening will catch those who are at high-risk, but have not yet been detected, said Prof Wong, who is also Sailor's co-director.

The retinal image at the polyclinics will cost between $6 and $15 compared to "hundreds" at a specialist. The advantage of the service is that it is low cost, uses readily-available technology and can serve as a "first round" of detection for those who might need further tests or specialist care, said Prof Wong.

There are also plans to tie up with healthcare clusters and to take this model abroad although a cost-effective study has to be done before the programme is expanded.

More than 3 per cent of the population aged 40 and above are diagnosed with glaucoma, a group of disorders which have in common an increase in the pressure inside the eye. Too high a pressure damages the optic nerve, and blindness can occur in severe cases.

While no estimates are available for Singapore, Prof Wong said such early detection and prevention is estimated to save some US$600 million ($839 million) for the United States annually.

Sailor, which cost more than $5 million to set up, was launched yesterday at the second Asia-Pacific Ocular Imaging Symposium yesterday.

It is a collaboration between A*Star's Institute for Infocomm Research and the Singapore Eye Research Institute, and is the third centre for eye research in the Fusionopolis-Biopolis science hub.

[SOURCE: http://www.todayonline.com]

Workplace fatalities rose 4.5% last year

SINGAPORE - They saw zero fatalities in 2008, but last year, these few sectors accounted for 10 out of the 70 workplace deaths.

There were two deaths in the hotels and restaurants sector: An electrocution incident, and a slip-and-trip case that reflected the sometimes poor housekeeping in the sector which makes for wet kitchen floors.

The other deaths after a fatality-free year were in landscape care and maintenance, administrative and support services, and architectural and engineering activities - which had the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council issuing a reminder that attention must also be paid to safety in industries not known to be high-risk.

According to the latest WSH report, the number of workplace fatalities last year rose by 4.5 per cent, the first increase since 2005.

Overall, the construction and marine sectors accounted for the bulk (63 per cent) of deaths last year. In construction, this had accompanied a surge in employment due to the building boom.

In all, 664,000 man-days were lost last year due to serious accidents, up from 643,000 the previous year.

Falls from height was the top incident type. Twenty-four people lost their lives last year as a result, up from 19 the year before.

The second most common type of accident was being struck by falling objects, which cost 21 lives. Crane-related mishaps accounted for 10 deaths last year, double that of the year before.

On the brighter side, the number of work injuries declined by 2.1 per cent, while 2009 saw the lowest number of occupational diseases confirmed since 2004. The latter fell by 45 per cent, which the WSH Council and Manpower Ministry attributed to the drop in noise-induced deafness cases.

To address workplace safety lapses, the ministry will step up enforcement on especial areas of concern, such as falls from heights.

The WSH Council said Singapore was on track to reduce the workplace fatality rate to below 1.8 per 100,000 workers by 2018.

[SOURCE: http://www.todayonline.com]

Less-known germ a bigger threat

ATLANTA - A NEW study finds that as one superbug seems to be fading as a threat in hospitals, another is on the rise.

A study of 28 hospitals in the Southeast found that a dangerous, drug-resistant staph infection called MRSA is often seen as the biggest germ threat to patients in hospitals and other health care facilities.

But infections from Clostridium difficile - known as C-diff - are surpassing MRSA infections. The rate of hospital-acquired C-diff infections was 25 per cent higher than MRSA infections.

C-diff is resistant to some antibiotics. It's found in the colon and can cause diarrhea and a more serious intestinal condition known as colitis.

Deaths from C-diff traditionally were rare, but a more dangerous form has emerged in the past ten years. -- REUTERS