Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 104 in total

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  1. Osteria T, Sullivan G
    AIDS Educ Prev, 1991;3(2):133-46.
    PMID: 1873137
    This paper examines the impact of cultural values and government policies on the content of AIDS educational literature prepared by public health agencies in Malaysia and the Philippines. The literature from these countries, which has been distributed to the public and is intended to inform them of the danger of AIDS, how the HIV is and is not transmitted, and how to avoid infection, is analyzed and evaluated for effectiveness and congruence with the dominant religious tenets and cultural practices in each country, and attitudes to sexual behavior. The paper also describes the response of these countries to the AIDS pandemic, and concludes with suggestions about how this form of AIDS education can be improved.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complications; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/epidemiology
  2. Sinniah M, Ooi BG
    Singapore Med J, 1993 Apr;34(2):132-4.
    PMID: 8266152
    We studied the presence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) antibodies in a defined Malaysian population and examined the association, if any, between HCV and the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), using sensitive recombinant DNA second generation Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA) test kits. This sero-prevalence study comprised 1,434 sera from eleven distinct groups comprising intravenous drug users (IVDU), haemophiliacs, male homosexuals, female prostitutes, healthy blood donors, staff of dialysis unit and laboratory personnel, chronic renal failure patients undergoing dialysis (CRFD), patients with liver cirrhosis, chronic active hepatitis, chronic persistent hepatitis and primary liver cancer. Except in laboratory personnel and dialysis staff, HCV antibodies were detected in each group of patients ranging from 3% in blood donors to 85% in IVDU. The main modes of HCV transmission identified were parenteral drug use, transfusion and/or dialysis related. The HBV was found to be the major viral etiological agent in 75% of chronic liver disease (CLD); while in 10% of cases both HCV and HBV were detected. HCV was implicated as the sole viral agent in only a small proportion (1.5%) of patients with chronic liver disease.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/microbiology
  3. Suarn S, Nor Adam M
    Med J Malaysia, 1993 Jun;48(2):117-23.
    PMID: 8350785
    Sixty-one serologically positive HIV infected drug abusers admitted to the Drug Ward, General Hospital, Kota Bharu, were interviewed for possible risk behaviour and AIDS awareness. Fifty-eight subjects were IV abusers while the other 3 were non-IV abusers. All the IV abusers had shared injecting equipment with no regard for sterility. There was non-usage of condoms among those sexually active. Though AIDS awareness was high, there was a lack of risk behaviour change. The drug abusers appear to be a problem group in HIV control measures. Educating the drug abusers and commitment by them to alter risk behaviour is needed.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous*
  4. Poshyachinda V
    Forensic Sci Int, 1993 Nov;62(1-2):15-28.
    PMID: 8300028
    Opium dependence was indigenous to countries in the Golden Triangle area in south-east Asia (SA). Heroin epidemics developed in most SA countries in the 1960s and early 1970s and remained a significant problem particularly in Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia until now. In contrast, the island countries in SA seemed quite free from opiate abuse. Intravenous injection (IV) of drugs appeared after the heroin epidemic and currently prevails in countries with a significant opiate abuse problem. IV of opium was particularly common in the highly urbanized cities in Vietnam. Most SA countries started HIV seroscreening in IV drug users (IVDU) around the middle of the 1980s. Rapid epidemic spread of HIV infection was observed in 1988-89 in Thailand and Myanmar. The Highest prevalence of more than 80% was reported from a study of IVDUs in Yangon, Myanmar, followed by Thailand at about 40%. Although HIV infected IVDUs were identified at the same time in Malaysia and later in Singapore and the Philippines, there was no evidence of such a rapid and severe epidemic.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complications; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/epidemiology*; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/prevention & control
  5. Subramaniam S, Balasubramaniam V, Sinniah M, Thayan R, Lim LY
    Malays J Pathol, 1993 Dec;15(2):143-6.
    PMID: 8065176
    HIV-1 antibody patterns in two groups, those infected by the intravenous route (IV drug users) and those infected by the sexual route (prostitutes, male homosexuals and sexually transmitted disease patients) were compared using the Western blot technique. A total of 160 cases were studied. The intravenous drug user (IVDU) group appeared to respond to fewer antibody markers than the sexually infected group, the difference being significant for markers p31, p51, p55, p66, gp41 and gp120. Furthermore, a higher proportion (63%) of the sexually infected group carried antibodies to all Western blot markers as compared to the IVDU group (49%).
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous*
  6. Poshyachinda V
    Bull Narc, 1993;45(1):77-90.
    PMID: 8305908
    Opium has been produced and consumed since the nineteenth century in the areas of Asia currently referred to as the Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle. In the 1970s and 1980s, most countries from Afghanistan to Japan experienced a heroin epidemic of varying degrees of severity. Opium and heroin abuse appeared to be more severe in countries and areas where those drugs were produced, an exception being Hong Kong, which has had a large population of heroin abusers for more than two decades. Drug injecting was far more common in countries of the Golden Triangle than in those of the Golden Crescent. In Myanmar and Thailand, for example, up to 90 per cent of chronic heroin abusers practised intravenous injection, which appeared to spread to heroin abusers in nearby territories such as the State of Manipur in India. Yunnan province in China, as well as Malaysia and Viet Nam. Amphetamine abuse was more frequent in Japan and the Republic of Korea for a number of years, while illicit production and consumption in the Philippines have recently shown significant increases. The injection of amphetamines was common only in the Republic of Korea. The prevalence of injecting among institutionalized methamphetamine abusers was reported at about 90 per cent. Most countries in Asia first reported cases of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the mid-1980s. An extremely rapid spead of the epidemic and high prevalence, at rates of from 30 to 90 per cent, of HIV infection among the sample of intravenous heroin abusers were observed in a few countries with a high prevalence of intravenous injecting, such as India (in the State of Manipur), Myanmar and Thailand. The rest had either few reported cases or none at all, even though needle-sharing was found to be common. Great caution should be exercised in interpreting prevalence because of vast differences in methods of assessment. Given the vulnerability of intravenous drug abusers to rapid transmission of HIV infection, the prevention of drug injecting is of paramount importance in arresting the spread of the epidemic. Efforts to contain drug abuse, though difficult, are a principal means of achieving that end.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complications*; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/epidemiology; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/prevention & control
  7. Singh S, Crofts N
    AIDS Care, 1993;5(3):273-81.
    PMID: 8218462 DOI: 10.1080/09540129308258610
    Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has spread widely among injecting drug users (IDUs) in countries to the north and west of the 'Golden Triangle' region of South-East Asia; it is likely to have spread southwards to Malaysia as well. In order to assess HIV seroprevalence among IDUs in north-east Malaysia and describe risk factors for HIV infection in this population, we performed a cross-sectional seroepidemiological study among 210 IDUs recruited at the detoxification ward of the General Hospital in the capital city of the north-eastern Malaysian state, Kelantan. Subjects were sequential entrants to the detoxification ward, interviewed about HIV risk behaviour, and tested for antibody to HIV and to syphilis. Nearly a third (62/210, 30%) of these IDUs were HIV seropositive. Three-quarters (159/210) had travelled to Thailand in the preceding 5 years, of whom 32% (51/159) were HIV seropositive; this was associated with injecting in Thailand, but not with sexual contact there. Of those who had not left Malaysia in the preceding 5 years, 26% (11/43) were HIV seropositive, a rate not significantly different from those who had travelled. Travel within Malaysia was common (144/210, 69%) among IDUs interviewed, as was unsafe injecting and unsafe sexual behaviour (20% had shared injecting equipment and 21% had had unprotected intercourse) in other states. In every locale, rates of unsafe injecting behaviour were high (55% sharing in last month), even among those who knew they were HIV infected, and rates of condom usage were low (93% of 160 sexually active IDUs had never used a condom). Syphilis was not associated with HIV infection, but with contact with Thai prostitutes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complications; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/epidemiology*; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/rehabilitation
  8. Navaratnam V, Jamaludin A, Raman N, Mohamed M, Mansor SM
    Drug Alcohol Depend, 1994 Feb;34(3):231-6.
    PMID: 8033761
    Thirty-eight, adult, male, detoxified, Malaysian opiate addicts participated in this double-blind clinical evaluation of naltrexone. Addicts from three ethnic groups: Chinese, Malays, and Indians received a weekly regimen of naltrexone (100 mg on Days 1 and 3, and 150 mg on Day 5). Subjects were randomly assigned to receive intravenous challenge with either 25 mg heroin or placebo 12, 24, 48, and 72 h after the third naltrexone dose. Physiological and subjective parameters were measured at each challenge interval. Results indicated that naltrexone was effective in blocking the physiological and psychological effects of heroin for at least 48 and 72 h, respectively, in detoxified Malaysian opiate addicts. The efficacy of naltrexone did not differ among the three ethnic groups evaluated in this study.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/rehabilitation
  9. Duraisamy G, Zuridah H, Ariffin Y, Kek CS
    Med J Malaysia, 1994 Sep;49(3):212-6.
    PMID: 7845268
    The hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is an RNA containing virus that requires hepatitis B virus (HBV) to supply the envelope proteins. HDV only infect man in the presence of HBV, either as a coinfection or as superinfection in HBV carriers. In the presence of hepatitis B infection, the HDV may cause more severe liver damage than that caused by the hepatitis B virus alone. HDV infection was studied in 44 HBsAg positive serum samples collected from male intravenous drug users sent for screening to the Blood Services Centre (BSC), Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) between 1990 and 1992. The majority (39) were in the 20 to 39 age group. The youngest was 19 years old and the oldest was 61 years old. There were 25 Malays, 13 Chinese, five Indians and one Albanian. Anti hepatitis delta antibody (Anti-HDV) was detected in 15 out of 44 (34%) of the drug addicts. These results shows an increased in delta infection in HBsAg positive intravenous drug addicts compared to the surveillance results in 1985 when no delta antibodies were detected, and the 1986 and 1989 surveillance which showed 17.8% and 20% delta antibody positivity respectively.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/epidemiology*
  10. Kamel AG, Maning N, Arulmainathan S, Murad S, Nasuruddin A, Lai KP
    PMID: 7667707
    A study conducted at the Tampin Drug Rehabilitation Center in Malaysia established a high prevalence (23%) of asymptomatic carriers of Cryptosporidium among exposed HIV positive intravenous drug users (IVDUs). A majority of them were young adults and among the ethnic groups, the Malay HIV positive inmates had the highest prevalence of Cryptosporidium infection.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complications; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/epidemiology*; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/rehabilitation
  11. Norazmi MN, Suarn S
    Immunol Lett, 1994 Dec;43(3):177-82.
    PMID: 7721330
    The CD4+ T-lymphocyte absolute count (CD4ac), CD4+ T-lymphocyte percentage (CD4%) and total lymphocyte count (Løac) were assessed in HIV-seropositive intravenous drug users (IVDU) with reference to their correlation with the clinical categories A, B, and C as stipulated by the Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, USA (CDC) and with each other. It was found that while the CD4ac and Løac correlated with the clinical categories, CD4% did not. This may suggest that in our local setting, the CD4% may not necessarily be a suitable alternative marker to CD4ac as proposed by CDC. Furthermore, the CD4% of the normal subjects in this study was found to be relatively lower than the reported Caucasian levels. This may indicate that the use of the cut-off level of less than 14% as an AIDS-defining criteria may not be applicable for our HIV-seropositive IVDU. In addition, unlike the CD4ac which correlated directly with CD4% and Løac, the CD4% did not correlate with Løac. Therefore, due to the observed disparity with clinical status of patients and its possibly lower levels in our normal population, CD4% as a marker for staging HIV disease should be used with caution in our setting. Such findings may also have an impact on the use of established markers for the monitoring and classification of HIV-infected individuals in this region.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/immunology*
  12. PMID: 12318930
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous*
  13. Ng KP, Saw TL, Wong NW, Goh KL, Chuah SY, Nagaratnam M
    Med J Malaysia, 1995 Dec;50(4):302-5.
    PMID: 8668047
    Anti-HCV antibody was detected in 1.9% of the blood donors in University Hospital. Among the risk groups, 33.3% of the patients with post-transfusion hepatitis were tested positive for anti-HCV antibody. The anti-HCV antibody was detected in 30% of the IDU. Haemodialysis patients, patients with acute and chronic hepatitis and patients with liver cirrhosis appeared to have increased risk of Hepatitis C virus infection. The results indicate that the frequency of HCV infection increases with the exposure to blood or blood products.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complications
  14. Wai BH, Singh S, Varma SL
    Addiction, 1996 Mar;91(3):435-8.
    PMID: 8867206
    One hundred and seventy-one drug-dependent females in a drug rehabilitation centre were studied to estimate the prevalence of HIV infection among them. Twenty-four (14%) were positive on the Western Blot test. The presence of HIV infection was significantly correlated with syphilis (p < 0.03) and age (p < 0.001); 83% of those who were HIV positive were intravenous drug users. The need for harm reduction programmes to prevent spread of HIV infection among injecting drug users is stressed.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/epidemiology; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/psychology
  15. Yoong KY, Cheong I
    Int J STD AIDS, 1997 Feb;8(2):118-23.
    PMID: 9061411
    A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the clinical profile, haematological and biochemical changes, seroprevalence of common opportunistic pathogens, and AIDS-defining events in 49 Malaysian male drug addicts with HIV infection. Their mean age was 33.2 years, the majority had been injecting drugs for more than 5 years and 88% reporting sharing needles. Fatigue, weight loss and night sweats were common presenting symptoms and the most frequent physical findings were hepatomegaly (57%), lymphadenopathy (35%) and thrush (29%). Pulmonary infections were the commonest complications seen (61%) and of these, 13 had septic pulmonary emboli, 7 had bacterial pneumonias, 7 had pulmonary tuberculosis, and 4 had Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Eight patients had infective endocarditis and 5 had infected pseudoaneurysm in the groin. Anaemia (82%), leucocytosis (53%), hypoalbuminaemia (43%), hyperglobulinaemia (88%), elevated liver enzymes and hyponatraemia (57%) were frequent laboratory findings. The prevalence of HCV, HBV, cytomegalovirus and toxoplasma infection (by serology) were 100%, 12.2%, 72.7% and 59% respectively. All 7 patients with AIDS (4 P. carinii pneumonia, 2 extrapulmonary tuberculosis, and one oesophageal candidiasis) presented with their AIDS-defining illness, suggesting that HIV-infected intravenous drug user (IVDU) patients present late in the course of the disease.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous*
  16. Kasper P, Chalwatzis N, Duraisamy G, Ofenloch-Hähnle B, Faatz E
    AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses, 1997 Sep 20;13(14):1251-3.
    PMID: 9310293
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/blood; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/genetics*; Substance Abuse, Intravenous/virology*
  17. Zainal AA, Yusha AW
    Med J Malaysia, 1998 Dec;53(4):372-5.
    PMID: 10971980
    This is a study of 54 intravenous drug user's (IVDUs) with infected pseudoaneurysms undergoing ligation and debridement at the Vascular Unit, Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) from February 1993 to February 1996. The median age was 37 years with a male preponderance (53:1). Chinese form the largest ethnic group with 57.4% of the cases. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common organism cultured. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive cases numbered 21 (38.9%). Four of the patients had to have an above-knee amputation after surgery. Simple ligation and debridement of all necrotic tissue is an acceptable mode of therapy in these patients with low amputation rates.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complications*
  18. Crofts N, Costigan G, Narayanan P, Gray J, Dorabjee J, Langkham B, et al.
    AIDS, 1998;12 Suppl B:S109-15.
    PMID: 9679636
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/prevention & control*
  19. Ismail R
    Clin Dermatol, 1999 5 20;17(2):127-35; discussion 105-6.
    PMID: 10330595 DOI: 10.1016/s0738-081x(99)00005-x
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous
  20. Saraswathy TS, Ng KP, Sinniah M
    PMID: 11127327
    The HIV-1 genetic variation in 60 infected Malaysian intravenous drug users (IDU) was studied by comparison of the nucleotide sequences and their predicted amino acid sequences in the V3 loop of the external glycoprotein gp120. In this study, HIV-1 B, C and E subtypes were identified among Malaysian IDU, with HIV-1 B being the predominant subtype (91.7%). HIV-1 C and HIV-1 E were minority subtypes among Malaysian IDU. Analysis of the amino acid alignment of the C2-V3 region of the env gene suggests a genetic relationship between Thai and Malaysian B and E subtype strains. This study serves as a baseline for monitoring HIV-1 genetic diversity and spread in Malaysia.
    Matched MeSH terms: Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complications*
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