MyMedR

Travel health-related activities and services provided by community pharmacies in Selangor, Malaysia: A cross-sectional analysis

Kc B, Khan TM, Xuan WY, Alrasheedy AA, Mohamed Ibrahim MI, Leggat PA

Travel Med Infect Dis, 2019 07 31;33:101463.

PMID: 31376464 DOI: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2019.07.019

BACKGROUND: Millions of tourists visit Malaysia annually while a large number of Malaysians travel overseas. Taking care of travellers' healthcare needs is important aspect of the healthcare system. Community pharmacies are ideally positioned to provide travel health-related services. However, studies are lacking in this area. Therefore, this study aims to explore the nature and type of travel health-related services provided by Malaysian community pharmacies.

METHODS: A survey was carried out at 135 community pharmacies in nine districts of Selangor, Malaysia, from November 2017 to February 2018, using a self-administered standardized questionnaire.

RESULTS: The majority (n = 95, 85%) of community pharmacies reported to have provided services to both international travellers and outbound Malaysian travellers. The common healthcare services provided to international travellers were monitoring of chronic diseases including hypertension and diabetes, and advice on minor ailments, supplements and medical devices. The key health services provided to outbound Malaysian travellers were advice on vaccination requirements, better management of chronic diseases and necessary medications to manage illness during travel. Most of the respondents supported the provision of travel health-related services through the community pharmacies.

CONCLUSION: The study findings showed that Malaysian community pharmacies provided several travel health-related services to both international and Malaysian outbound travellers. Pharmacists in Malaysia are ideally positioned to have an increased role in travel medicine. They have the training to advise on complex medication issues especially with regard to interactions and polypharmacy. However, further training and courses should be provided that are tailored specifically for the needs of this professional group.

Matched MeSH terms: Travel Medicine/methods*; Travel Medicine/statistics & numerical data*

Fulltext The emergence of cholera in multiple countries amidst current COVID-19 pandemic: Situation and implications for public health and travel medicine

Reda A, Sah R, Abdelaal A, Shrestha S, Rodriguez-Morales AJ

Travel Med Infect Dis, 2022;49:102423.

PMID: 35952967 DOI: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2022.102423

Matched MeSH terms: Travel Medicine

Complementary treatment of psychotic and epileptic patients in malaysia

Razali SM, Yassin AM

Transcult Psychiatry, 2008 Sep;45(3):455-69.

PMID: 18799643 DOI: 10.1177/1363461508094676

The objective of this article is to describe and compare the use of traditional/complementary medicine (T/CM) among psychotic (schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder) and epileptic Malay patients in peninsular Malaysia. There were 60 patients in each group. T/CM consultation was uniformly spread across all levels of education and social status. We could not find a single over-riding factor that influenced the decision to seek T/CM treatment because the decision to seek such treatment was complex and the majority of decisions were made by others. Fifty-three patients (44.2%), consisting of 37 (61.7%) psychotic and 16 (26.7%) epileptic patients had consulted Malay traditional healers (bomoh) and/or homeopathic practitioners in addition to modern treatment; of these, only three had consulted bomoh and homeopathic practitioners at the same time. The use of T/CM was significantly higher in psychotic than in epileptic Malay patients.

Matched MeSH terms: Medicine, East Asian Traditional*

Development of antibody to Rickettsia tsutsugamushi in soldiers in Malaysia

Brown GW, Shirai A, Groves MG

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 1983;77(2):225-7.

PMID: 6408770

Malaysian, British and New Zealand soldiers were tested for evidence of infection with Rickettsia tsutsugamushi after several weeks' exposure to the infection during field exercises in Malaysia. 39 (5.0%) of 787 British and New Zealand soldiers developed immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) to R. tsutsugamushi to a titre of 1:50 and two (0.3%) to a titre of 1:100. 11 (1.5%) of 751 Malaysian soldiers also developed low titres less than or equal to 1:100. These low antibody levels were not correlated with clinical disease, and their significance is unknown. Seven (0.9%) of the Malaysians showed an IFA rise to greater than or equal to 1:200, and three of these experienced febrile illnesses, one lasting two weeks. An additional eight Malaysian soldiers had an IFA titre of greater than or equal to 1:400 when first tested and six of these also had a Proteus OXK agglutinin titre of greater than or equal to 1:160, indicating infection shortly before the study.

Matched MeSH terms: Military Medicine*

Fulltext Diagnostics and the neglected tropical diseases roadmap: setting the agenda for 2030

Souza AA, Ducker C, Argaw D, King JD, Solomon AW, Biamonte MA, et al.

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 2021 01 28;115(2):129-135.

PMID: 33169166 DOI: 10.1093/trstmh/traa118

Accurate and reliable diagnostic tools are an essential requirement for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) programmes. However, the NTD community has historically underinvested in the development and improvement of diagnostic tools, potentially undermining the successes achieved over the last 2 decades. Recognizing this, the WHO, in its newly released draft roadmap for NTD 2021-2030, has identified diagnostics as one of four priority areas requiring concerted action to reach the 2030 targets. As a result, WHO established a Diagnostics Technical Advisory Group (DTAG) to serve as the collaborative mechanism to drive progress in this area. Here, the purpose and role of the DTAG are described in the context of the challenges facing NTD programmes.

Matched MeSH terms: Tropical Medicine*

Chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria among British service personnel in West Malaysia and Singapore

McKelvey TP, Lundie AR, Vanreenen RM, Williams ED, Moore HS, Thomas MJ, et al.

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 1971;65(3):286-309.

PMID: 4934534

Matched MeSH terms: Military Medicine

A retrospective serological suvey of Royal Marines previously exposed to Pseudomonas pseudomallei in South East Asia

Preston PJ, Lightfoot N, Clarke P

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 1976;70(4):335-7.

PMID: 1006764

Following the suggestion that it was possible that cases of melioidosis amongst those who had been exposed abroad in the past, might be escaping notice, 487 Royal Marines were examined by indirect haemagglutination studies. Four hundred and eleven of these subjects had served for variable times in areas where melioidosis has been known to occur in Indonesia and Malaya, between 1960 and 1974, occupied in activities in the jungle and paddy fields during which exposure to the disease was to be expected. No evidence of residual subclinical melioidosis was found and it seems unlikely that recrudescent disease will prove to be a problem in the future for English servicemen who have been in South East Asia.

Matched MeSH terms: Military Medicine*

Notes on beri-beri

Wellington AR

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 1909;2(5):226-243.

DOI: 10.1016/S0035-9203(09)90072-4

Matched MeSH terms: Tropical Medicine

Mosquito reduction and the consequent eradication of malaria

Watson M

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 1913;7:59-70.

Malaya in full text]

Matched MeSH terms: Tropical Medicine

Some observations on malaria on rubber estates

Linnell RMC

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 1915;8:238-260.

Matched MeSH terms: Tropical Medicine

The cause of true or tropical beri-beri

Braddon L

Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 1909;2(5):212-225.

DOI: 10.1016/S0035-9203(09)90065-7

Matched MeSH terms: Tropical Medicine

Fulltext NiO nanoparticles induce cytotoxicity mediated through ROS generation and impairing the antioxidant defense in the human lung epithelial cells (A549): Preventive effect of Pistacia lentiscus essential oil

Mohamed K, Zine K, Fahima K, Abdelfattah E, Sharifudin SM, Duduku K

Toxicol Rep, 2018;5:480-488.

PMID: 29854619 DOI: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2018.03.012

Nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) have attracted increasing attention owing to potential capacity to penetrate to several human cell systems and exert a toxic effect. Elsewhere, the use of medicinal plants today is the form of the most widespread medicine worldwide. Utilizing aromatic plants as interesting source of phytochemicals constitute one of the largest scientific concerns. Thus this study was focused to investigate antioxidant and cytoprotective effects of essential oil of a Mediterranean plant P. lentiscus (PLEO) on NiO NPs induced cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in human lung epithelial cells (A549). The obtained results showed that cell viability was reduced by NiO NPs, who's also found to induce oxidative stress in dose-dependent manner indicated by induction of reactive oxygen species and reduction of antioxidant enzymes activities. Our results also demonstrated that PLEO contains high amounts in terpinen-4-ol (11.49%), germacrene D (8.64%), α-pinene (5.97%), sabinene (5.19%), caryophyllene (5.10%) and δ-Cadinene (4.86%). PLEO exhibited a potent antioxidant capacity by cell viability improving, ROS scavenging and enhancing the endogenous antioxidant system against NiO NPs in this model of cells. The present work demonstrated, for the first time, the protective activity of PLEO against cell oxidative damage induced by NiO NPs. It was suggested that this plant essential oil could be use as a cells protector.

Matched MeSH terms: Medicine

Editorial for the Special Issue: Revolutionizing Regenerative Research Strategies Toward Precision Medicine-Asia-Pacific Region

Ramasamy R, Yahaya BH, Tan SL

Tissue Eng Part C Methods, 2022 10;28(10):499-500.

PMID: 36326783 DOI: 10.1089/ten.tec.2022.29035.editorial

Matched MeSH terms: Precision Medicine*

Fulltext Angiogenic potential of extracellular matrix of human amniotic membrane

Hashim SNM, Yusof MFH, Zahari W, Noordin KBAA, Kannan TP, Hamid SSA, et al.

Tissue Eng Regen Med, 2016 Jun;13(3):211-217.

PMID: 30603401 DOI: 10.1007/s13770-016-9057-6

Combination between tissue engineering and other fields has brought an innovation in the area of regenerative medicine which ultimate aims are to repair, improve, and produce a good tissue construct. The availability of many types of scaffold, both synthetically and naturally have developed into many outstanding end products that have achieved the general objective in tissue engineering. Interestingly, most of this scaffold emulates extracellular matrix (ECM) characteristics. Therefore, ECM component sparks an interest to be explored and manipulated. The ECM featured in human amniotic membrane (HAM) provides a suitable niche for the cells to adhere, grow, proliferate, migrate and differentiate, and could possibly contribute to the production of angiogenic micro-environment indirectly. Previously, HAM scaffold has been widely used to accelerate wound healing, treat bone related and ocular diseases, and involved in cardiovascular repair. Also, it has been used in the angiogenicity study, but with a different technical approach. In addition, both side of HAM could be used in cellularised and decellularised conditions depending on the objectives of a particular research. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to investigate the behavior of ECM components especially on the stromal side of HAM and further explore the angiogenic potential exhibited by this scaffold.

Matched MeSH terms: Regenerative Medicine

Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells by a polycistronic lentiviral vector in feeder- and serum- free defined culture

Al Abbar A, Nordin N, Ghazalli N, Abdullah S

Tissue Cell, 2018 Dec;55:13-24.

PMID: 30503056 DOI: 10.1016/j.tice.2018.09.004

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have great potentials for regenerative medicine. However, serious concerns such as the use of the viral-mediated reprogramming strategies and exposure of iPSCs to animal products from feeder cells and serum-containing medium have restricted the application of iPSCs in the clinics. Therefore, the generation of iPSCs with minimal viral integrations and in non-animal sourced and serum-free medium is necessary. In this report, a polycistronic lentiviral vector carrying Yamanaka's factors was used to reprogram mouse fibroblasts into iPSCs in feeder- and xeno-free culture environment. The generated iPSCs exhibited morphology and self-renewal properties of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), expression of specific pluripotent markers, and potentials to differentiate into the three-major distinct specialized germ layers in vitro. The iPSCs were also shown to have the potential to differentiate into neural precursor and neurons in culture, with greater than 95% expression of nestin, Pax6 and βIII-tubulin. This body of work describes an alternative method of generating iPSCs by using polycistronic lentiviral vector that may minimize the risks associated with viral vector-mediated reprogramming and animal derived products in the culture media.

Matched MeSH terms: Regenerative Medicine/methods

Fulltext [A fifth plasmodium that can cause malaria]

Myrvang B

Tidsskr. Nor. Laegeforen., 2010 Feb 11;130(3):282-3.

PMID: 20160773 DOI: 10.4045/tidsskr.09.0554

Since 2004, malaria with a "fifth" plasmodium, Plasmodium knowlesi (common in macaque monkeys), has been diagnosed in a number of people in Southeast Asia. This article gives a short overview of the epidemiology, clinical picture, diagnostics and treatment of P. knowlesi infection.

Matched MeSH terms: Travel Medicine

Cost-effectiveness analysis of pharmacogenetic-guided warfarin dosing in Thailand

Chong HY, Saokaew S, Dumrongprat K, Permsuwan U, Wu DB, Sritara P, et al.

Thromb Res, 2014 Dec;134(6):1278-84.

PMID: 25456732 DOI: 10.1016/j.thromres.2014.10.006

Pharmacogenetic (PGx) test is a useful tool for guiding physician on an initiation of an optimal warfarin dose. To implement of such strategy, the evidence on the economic value is needed. This study aimed to determine the cost-effectiveness of PGx-guided warfarin dosing compared with usual care (UC).

Matched MeSH terms: Precision Medicine/economics*

Effects of EBN on embryo implantation, plasma concentrations of reproductive hormones, and uterine expressions of genes of PCNA, steroids, growth factors and their receptors in rats

Albishtue AA, Yimer N, Zakaria MZA, Haron AW, Babji AS, Abubakar AA, et al.

Theriogenology, 2019 Mar 01;126:310-319.

PMID: 30605790 DOI: 10.1016/j.theriogenology.2018.12.026

This study was conducted to determine the effect of edible bird's nest (EBN) supplement on uterine function and embryo-implantation rate. A total of 24 adult female rats, divided equally into four groups, were treated with different doses of EBN for 8 weeks. In the last week of treatment, intact fertile male rats were introduced into each group (three per group) for overnight for mating. On day 7 post-mating (post-implantation), blood samples were collected from the hearts of anaesthetised rats that were later sacrificed. The uteri were removed for assessment of embryo implantation rate, histological and electron microscopic examination, and immunohistochemical analyses. Results showed that as the concentration of EBN supplemented increased, the pregnancy and embryo implantation rates were also increased in the treated groups; significantly at G3 and G4. Although histological evaluation did not show much difference among the groups, scanning electron microscopic examination showed enhanced development of elongated microvilli and pinopods in G4. Results also revealed up-regulated expressions of epidermal growth factor (EGF), EGF receptor (EGFR), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), proliferating cell nulear antigen (PCNA), and progesterone and estrogen receptors (P4R, E2R) in the uteri of treated groups. Moreover, plasma E2, P4, growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (P) levels were higher (p 

Matched MeSH terms: Medicine, Chinese Traditional*

[The Medical Research Institute in Kuala Lumpur and its significance for tropical medicine in East Asia]

Bierdrager J

Ther Ggw, 1977 Oct;116(10):1950-64.

PMID: 918885

Matched MeSH terms: Tropical Medicine*

Fulltext Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Spending on Research and Development to Address the Needs for Innovative Therapeutic Products in Indonesia

Suwantika AA, Kautsar AP, Zakiyah N, Abdulah R, Boersma C, Postma MJ

Ther Clin Risk Manag, 2020;16:969-977.

PMID: 33116546 DOI: 10.2147/TCRM.S260377

Background: The annual gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) per capita of Indonesia ($24) remains relatively lower than the annual GERD per capita of neighboring countries, such as Vietnam ($36), Singapore ($1804), Malaysia ($361), and Thailand ($111).

Objective: The aim of this study was to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of spending on healthcare R&D to address the needs of developing innovative therapeutic products in Indonesia.

Methods: A decision tree model was developed by taking into account four stages of R&D: stage 1 from raw concept to feasibility, stage 2 from feasibility to development, stage 3 from development to early commercialization, and stage 4 from early to full commercialization. Considering a 3-year time horizon, a stage-dependent success rate was applied and analyses were conducted from a business perspective. Two scenarios were compared by assuming the government of Indonesia would increase GERD in health and medical sciences up to 2- and 3-times higher than the baseline (current situation) for the first and second scenario, respectively. Cost per number of innovative products in health and medical sciences was considered as the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Univariate sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of different input parameters on the ICER.

Results: There was a statistically significant association (P-value<0.05) between countries' GERD in medical and health sciences with the number of innovative products. We estimated the ICER would be $8.50 million and $2.04 million per innovative product for the first and second scenario, respectively. The sensitivity analysis showed that the success rates in all stages and total GERD were the most influential parameters impacting the ICER.

Conclusion: The result showed that there was an association between GERD in medical and health sciences with the number of innovative products. In addition, the second scenario would be more cost-effective than the first scenario.

Matched MeSH terms: Medicine

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