To determine the impact of the haze on asthma symptomatology in children with chronic asthma on inhaled prophylaxis. The study was prospective and collected information on asthma symptoms from children attending the asthma clinic. A comparison of peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) measurements before and during the haze was performed for children above 7 years. A total of 97 children were included into the study. Forty (41%) children complained of an increase in nocturnal cough (55%) followed by nasal symptoms (40%), daytime cough (40%), nocturnal wheeze (25%) and daytime wheeze (18%). About half of the children who had increased symptomatology during the haze had to limit outdoor activities. In the 43 children in whom PEFR studies were available, 29 (67%) of them had a fall in the PEFR. However, children with no increase in asthma symptomatology showed a similar fall in PEFR measurement when compared to children with increased asthma symptomatology. The haze appeared to be detrimental to the well being of some children with chronic asthma despite being on inhaled prophylaxis.
Study site: Asthma clinic, University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The incidence of road traffic injuries has increased over the last two decades. Of greater concern is the prediction that the problem is likely to increase further, given present trends in transportation. Injuries and not "accidents" need to be the focus of the health sector. Passive strategies, which are independent of human behaviour, are more likely to succeed in the prevention of injuries compared to "active" strategies. The health sector needs to play a bigger role in prevention through advocacy, research and education of target groups.
The Patient's Charter tells about the rights and standard of service a patient can expect. However, little information is available to gauge the reality of the charter in real practice. This survey was performed to determine the validity of the charter to the services provided and to identify areas of improvement if the charter is to be revised. A questionnaire-based survey was used to seek information from 196 patients who attended the Outpatient Department in Banting District Hospital over a period of four days. The overall waiting time for registration, to be seen by a doctor and for medication were 17.4 ± 2.0 minutes, 25.3 ± 2.6 minutes and 15.8 ± 1.3 minutes respectively. The overall waiting time for the whole consultation was 61.4 ± 4.9 minutes. Only 30.8% respondents knew about the Patient's Charter. The Patient's Charter appears to be valid for the actual services provided. There have to be measures to increase the awareness of the charter to the public perhaps via pamphlets and to provide a multi-linguistic charter.
A total of 245 foreign workers was screened for various microbial and parasitic infections, as part of the pilot study on the health problems of foreign workers. The sample comprising of Indonesian and Bangladeshi workers, was selected on a non-probability basis from two sources, i.e. University Hospital and a private sector. This investigation revealed substantive number of workers with positive cases to some of the microbial and parasitic infections. KEYWORDS: Pilot study, infective agents, foreign workers