Yee-Sin Leo

Yee-Sin Leo (; born ), also known as Yee Sin Leo, is a Singaporean physician. Leo is the executive director of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and researches emerging infectious diseases. She has been in charge of Singapore's response to several outbreaks, including Nipah, SARS and COVID-19. In 2020, she was selected as one of the BBC's top 100 Women.

Early life Leo earned her undergraduate degree at the National University of Singapore. She earned her master's of medicine in 1989. She was a medical registrar at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. As a young doctor, Leo was interested in immunology, but after a chance encounter with infectious disease specialist David Allen she became more interested in infectious diseases. She was one of the first doctors to be trained in infectious diseases in Singapore.

Research and career In 1992, Leo worked as a clinical fellow in Los Angeles, where over half of her workload was HIV cases.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Leo was cited in the Singapore press telling people that they did not have to wear masks if they did not have symptoms of respiratory infection.

In the preparations for the Global Health Summit hosted by the European Commission and the G20 in May 2021, Leo co-chaired the event's High Level Scientific Panel. Since 2022, she has been serving on the Technical Advisory Panel of the joint World Bank/World Health Organization's Pandemic Fund. That same year, she was inducted into the Singapore Women's Hall of Fame. In 2023, Leo was replaced as executive director of NCID by Vernon Lee. She subsequently became a senior consultant at the Ministry of Health and the National Healthcare Group.

Personal life Leo is married to a biotechnology specialist. Together they have three children. 2016: National Healthcare Group Distinguished Senior Clinician Award 2020: BBC's 100 Women

Selected publications