Dr Asok Kurup

Dr Asok Kurup is an infectious disease physician practising at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore. His clinical expertise encompasses managing diverse infections ranging in complexity from outpatient to inpatient care. Conditions include community type infections (eg. influenza), tuberculosis, parasitic infections (eg. malaria), brain infection, pneumonia, skin, bone and joint infections, and surgical infections.

Dr Kurup attained his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1992. He then obtained a Master of Medicine in internal medicine from NUS and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, UK in 1997.

With a keen interest in infectious diseases, Dr Kurup pursued advanced specialty training both locally and at the University of California in San Diego, USA where he focused on HIV medicine. He was awarded specialist accreditation in infectious diseases from the Ministry of Health, Singapore and the Singapore Medical Council in 2001. He has also been a fellow of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore since 2005.

Dr Kurup was a former visiting consultant to the Infectious Diseases Department of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), where he ran a HIV clinic at the Communicable Diseases Centre. He was also formerly a senior consultant in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), where he continues to serve as a visiting consultant.

Dr Kurup was at the forefront of infectious diseases outbreaks, such as the Nipah virus outbreak in 1999, the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the H1N1 pandemic of 2009. As the former chair of the infection control committee of SGH, Dr Kurup also managed other various outbreaks and remains passionate about control of community and nosocomial (hospital-originated) infections. He has also served on several committees at the Ministry of Health, dealing with infection control.

As a member of the specialist training committee on infectious diseases and the current vice-president of infectious diseases physicians specialty board, Dr Kurup has been contributing to the development of the specialty in Singapore. He was a clinical lecturer in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS, and is currently an adjunct associate professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School.

Dr Kurup has published over 85 scientific papers and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals, such as Clinical Infectious Diseases, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Emerging Infectious Diseases and the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. He is also a regular reviewer of various scientific publications, such as the Annals of Internal Medicine, American Journal of Infection Control and the Singapore Medical Journal.

Dr Kurup has also been active in community outreach. In 2005, he was part of a medical mission organized by Singhealth and the Sri Lanka Red Cross to bring medical relief to victims of the tsunami in Sri Lanka. In 2006, he led efforts by SGH to bring medical care and education to a disadvantaged neighbourhood.