Singapore doctor has disease named after him

For that and other milestones, Dr Tay receives lifetime achievement award



Dr Tay has a photo of the children whom he diagnosed with a rare disease, later named Tay Syndrome. That scrap of information represented the only link to Dr Tay Chong Hai's former patients, two siblings who had a disease so rare no one had diagnosed it before. Dr Tay did - and bec ame the first doctor in South-east Asia to have a disease named after him: Tay Syndrome.

That was way back in 1971. All he had now was their old gleaned from patient records over 30 years old. He sent a letter to that address, hoping against hope that the patients would still be there.

'The chances were low I knew,' smiled the spry 73-year-old doctor, who still practises at his clinic in Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre.

In 1968, the siblings had been referred by their school to Outram Road Hospital - as Singapore General Hospital was known at the time - where he was a consultant physician practising internal medicine. The pair had scaly, itchy skin and strangely banded, short hair. Their hair was so brittle that the slightest friction against the pillow or the use of a hairbrush would be enough to break the shafts.

Singapore General Hospital's new museum, which opens in May, will have an exhibit on Dr Tay's myriad discoveries and achievements. 'They were quite skinny and stunted for their age and their skin was so dry that painful cracks and fissures had appeared on their palms and soles,' Dr Tay said.

But several things aroused his curiosity. For one, they were a brother and sister and whatever afflicted them had to have a common cause - whether genetic or environmental.

Instead of just sending them off with a salve, Dr Tay decided to conduct more tests, including skin biopsies and a specific type of microscopy to examine their hair. He also researched their family history and concluded that they had a rare genetic condition. In 1971, he published his paper in the United States-based Archives of Dermatology journal and identified the syndrome for the first time.

'Soon after, doctors from all over began describing the same group of symptoms in their patients. So a few years later, dermatology textbooks began using Tay Syndrome to describe this particular condition,' he said.

Just last year, US researchers found the genetic mutations that cause Tay Syndrome.

Tay Syndrome is just one of the milestones in an august career that will be honoured tonight, when Dr Tay will receive a lifetime achievement award from President S R Nathan at a gala dinner. The dinner has been organised by the National Arthritis Foundation, which Dr Tay helped set up in 1984 and where he was chairman for 14 years.

Besides Tay Syndrome, Dr Tay was responsible for identifying the first outbreak of the childhood hand, foot and mouth disease in Singapore in 1972.

He also made the news around the same time when he discovered that a traditional Chinese formulation that asthma patients had been taking here contained several thousand times the legal limit of arsenic.

The 'Sin Lak' pills, made by an apothecary in Chinatown, caused a variety of problems, from severe skin pigmentation to skin lesions and liver problems. Four deaths were reported and he was called to court to testify about what he had found. It caused a huge public outcry at the time.

'It was front-page news, because at that time everybody was self-medicating and there were no rules about these traditional Chinese medicines. People were throwing out their old pills!' Dr Tay said.

The pill was banned and the sinseh fined. But more importantly, it paved the way for more checks on other herbal pills, many of which were found to contain heavy metals like lead and mercury.

In 1972, Parliament decided to introduce the Medicines Act to license all drugs in Singapore.

But for all his achievements, it is still the people he helped that matter, he says. So, when Madam B.Y. Li walked into his clinic on March 17 this year, he was pleasantly surprised.

She bore no resemblance to the awkward nine-year-old who had such bad skin and hair. The petite woman he saw now had clear skin, with little splashes of make-up. Her sleeveless top showed off her smooth arms and back.

Said Dr Tay: 'She has grown from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. I am so happy for her. She has two grown children, a happy marriage and she looks very good indeed.'

He has yet to contact her brother, who is not married, but is apparently also doing well.

'This is what it's all about. People. I'm hoping that young people, young doctors will find these stories interesting and maybe they will help inspire them to look for the small things to make a big difference,' he said.

Tay SyndromeWhat: A rare genetic disorder, afflicting only hundreds around the world.

Characterised by: Brittle, banded 'tiger stripe' hair caused by a deficiency in sulfur. Skin is red, scaly and dry. Described in medical journal by Dr Tay Chong Hai in 1971. In 1975, Tay Syndrome appeared in dermatology textbooks.

By Natalie Sohfrom The Straits Times Interactive, March 31, 2005