50 years ago, the number one killer in Singapore was not cancer or heart disease or diabetes. It was tubercolosis, or TB, a deadly and highly infectious disease that still plagues much of the undeveloped world. The main symptoms of TB was a bloody cough and rapid weight loss and could lead to death. In post-war Singapore, Tan Tock Seng Hospital was the primary place to go to for TB – because of the seriousness of the disease, getting sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital was something very serious indeed.
yg, who in his youth lived in a kampong just across the road from the hospital, blogs about his memories of the hospital and the dreaded TB.
this was the tan tock seng i knew when i was growing up. kampong chia heng, where we lived, was separated from tan tock seng by the former jewish cemetery on thomson road. next to the hospital was another kampong known as kampong lorong sinaran. those days when someone had a persistent cough, we would say: ” tb, ah? you better go to tan tock seng.” living so close to the hospital also made us more aware of some of the symptoms of the disease, like loss of weight (nearly all the patients were skinny); a persistent cough and, in very severe cases, coughing out blood.
Perhaps because of this heritage, the hospital is also home to the Communicable Disease Centre. More recently, Tan Tock Seng Hospital was the primary centre for the SARS epidemic, another highly infectious disease. You can read about yg’s post on the hospital here.
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