2024 Wrapped: The biggest health stories of the year, and what's next

The ongoing woes facing Singapore's oldest private cord blood bank, greater scrutiny of telemedicine providers, and a continued focus on preparing for the next pandemic were among the major issues involving healthcare in Singapore in 2024.

- Zhaki Abdullah

Here are five of the top health stories of 2024, and what can be expected in 2025:

1 PREPARING THE POPULATION FOR THE NEXT PANDEMIC

Changes to the Infectious Diseases Act were passed in March, with the aim of allowing the Republic to address public health threats of varying severity.

A new intermediate state called the Public Health Threat was introduced, in addition to the more dire Public Health Emergency.

These changes effectively replace the earlier colour-coded Disease Outbreak Response System Condition, or Dorscon, framework.

In September, the country also stepped up measures to protect against mpox, previously known as monkeypox, after the World Health Organisation declared the disease a global public health emergency for the second time in two years.

These include free vaccinations for healthcare workers at highest risk of exposure to mpox, as well as close contacts of confirmed cases, in addition to immediate contact tracing for close contacts of confirmed mpox clade I cases.

On Dec 21, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said Singapore was watching four diseases as part of pandemic preparedness efforts - H5N1 bird flu, Covid-19, mpox clade I, and a mystery disease in Congo, which its Health Ministry has since identified as a severe form of malaria.

2 TELEMEDICINE UNDER GREATER SCRUTINY

Gaining popularity amid the safe management measures of the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine came under greater scrutiny in 2024.

On Dec 20, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced it was revoking the licence of MaNaDr Clinic, whose services include teleconsultation, citing "an entrenched culture of disregard for the applicable ethical and clinical standards".

MOH cited many cases involving very short teleconsultations, with the shortest lasting just one second.