Minah Karan, the stigmatizing label appended to Malay factory women in the 1980s, signaled a dangerous female sexuality that risked spreading beyond the factory gates and infecting Malaysia's idea(l)s of its traditional kampung culture. This article narrates how Minah Karan, as the former antihero of development, was reconstituted in the 1990s, with the government's labeling of factories as "high-risk settings" for HIV/AIDS. This is an ethnoetiology based not on any evidential epidemiological data but on the racial and gendered "mixing" that transpires behind factory walls: a fear that the "mixing of the sexes" means ipso facto "sexual mixing" among the races. The article demonstrates how importation of the high-risk label articulates at the local level the new and contested linkages, economic, religious, and scientific, constitutive of globalization. The pragmatic nature and imperatives of this high-risk process are discerned in factory women's accounts of how they negotiate the interactional imperatives of factory work, because transnational structures of productivity violate the social boundaries that have long connoted political stability, moral integrity, ethnic community, and individual safety. The article concludes by questioning whether ethnoetiologies, especially when they concern sexual networks, become social etiologies, because this would locate ethnoetiologies as central to conventional public health praxis rather than as ethnographic exotica in the margins.
This paper aims to highlight the importance of aspiring to achieve universal reporting of maternal deaths as a part of taking responsibility for these avoidable tragedies. The paper first discusses the reasons for reporting maternal deaths, distinguishing between individual case notification and aggregate statistics. This is followed by a summary of the status of reporting at national and international levels, as well as major barriers and facilitators to this process. A new framework is then proposed - the REPORT framework, designed to highlight six factors essential to universal reporting. Malaysia is used to illustrate the relevance of these factors. Finally, the paper makes a Call to Action by FIGO to promote REPORT and to encourage health professionals to play their part in improving the quality of reporting on all maternal deaths - not just those directly in their care.
Data from the National Cancer Registry of Malaysia for 2004 provide an age-standardised incidence rate (ASR) of 46.2 per 100,000 women. This means that approximately 1 in 20 women in the country develop breast cancer in their lifetime. However, the rate differs between the three main races, the Malays, Chinese and Indians. The age standardized incidence in Chinese is the highest, with 59.7 per 100,000, followed by the Indians at 55.8 per 100,000. The Malays have the lowest incidence of 33.9 per 100,000. This translates into 1 in 16 Chinese, 1 in 16 Indian and 1 in 28 Malay women developing breast cancer at some stage in their lives. The commonest age at presentation is between 40-49 years, with just over 50% of the cases under the age of 50 years, 16.8% below 40, and 2% under 30. Some 55.7% of all cases were found to be ER positive. The commonest presenting symptom was a lump in the breast in over 90% of cases, generally felt by the woman herself. The mean size of the lump was 4.2 cm, and on average, the women waited 3 months before seeking medical attention. Over the 12-year period from 1993 to 2004, about 60-70% of women presented with early stage (Stages 1-2) while 30-40% presented with late breast cancer (Stages 3-4). Especially Malays present at later stages and with larger tumours. Consequently their survival is worse than with Chinese and Indian women. The challenge in Malaysia is to be able to provide a comprehensive service in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, and this requires training of a team of health professionals dedicated to breast health, such as breast surgeons, radiologists specializing in breast imaging, breast pathologists, plastic surgeons specializing in breast reconstruction, medical and radiation oncologists, psycho-oncologists, counselors, and breast nurses. Advocacy can play a role here in galvanizing the political will to meet this challenge.
The "golden ratio" is considered as a universal facial aesthetical standard. Researcher's opinion that deviation from golden ratio can result in development of facial abnormalities.
Pericardial cysts occur rarely, with an incidence rate of 1 per 100,000. They are usually detected by chance and clinically silent in most cases. Pericardial cysts are the most common benign tumours of the pericardium and presents by the third or fourth decade of life, and equally common in males and females. In principle, they only require follow-up, however, an enlarging or symptomatic cyst requires surgical removal. We report a case of a 32 year-old Malay lady, who presented with history of recurrent pericardial effusion followed by right pleural effusion. Computed tomography (CT) thorax identified a large mediastinal cyst as the cause of her problem, requiring exploratory thoracotomy.
Intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD) is common choice for contraception. Migration of IUCD is one of the complications that are encountered. Here we report a case of IUCD migration to the sigmoid colon. A 39-year-old Malay lady carrying a copper T type of IUCD presented with missing thread then underwent examination under anaesthesia, proceeded to hysteroscopy but failed removal. Abdominal ultrasound detected it in the left lower quadrant of abdomen. She then underwent diagnostic laparoscopy where the device was found to be embedded in the sigmoid colon. Technical difficulty necessitated conversion to mini laparotomy and sigmoidotomy to remove the IUCD and the bowel closed primarily. IUCD is a relatively simple and safe contraceptive procedure but possible complications are bleeding and pain that usually co-exist, pelvic infection, expulsion and perforation. Investigations should be based on clinical suspicion and migrated IUCD in symptomatic patients should be surgically removed whereas, asymptomatic patients can be managed conservatively under certain circumstances. However in the presence of a concurrent pathology that requires exploration then retrieval of the migrated IUCD should be undertaken.
INTRODUCTION: Effective communication in a clinical environment plays a vital role in patient assessment and treatment. The aim of this study was to understand the experiences of Malaysian medical students concerning communication barriers during clinical practice. The goal was to provide answers for three important research questions, i.e., 1) Are communication barriers an impediment to Malaysian students during clinical teaching? 2) What is the nature of the language barriers that the students encounter? and 3) What are the best ways of reducing these barriers during clinical teaching?
METHODS: The qualitative method was used to conduct the research, and open-ended questionnaires were used to collect the data. The study was conducted on 95 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-year students, 80% of whom completed the study.
RESULTS: Medical students from Malaysia who have limited knowledge of the Arabic language experience some difficulties in communicating with staff members, patients, and nurses during their clinical practices.
CONCLUSION: Successful orientation of students to the language used in the clinical environment will help the students overcome the communication barriers they encounter during their clinical practices.
KEYWORDS: Arabic language; Malaysia; clinical environment; communication barriers; medical students
Evidence of traumatized permanent incisors was recorded as part of a national oral health survey of schoolchildren in Malaysia. A total of 4,085 schoolchildren aged 16 years were examined. The prevalence of injury was 4.1% and it was significantly higher in males than females, with a ratio of 2:1. Almost 75% of the subjects had one tooth affected. Out of a total of 200 fractured teeth, 78.0% involved the maxillary central incisors. A high level of untreated traumatized teeth (89%) was noted. However, of the untreated traumatized teeth, only 9% presented with problems such as discoloration of tooth, sinus or abscess formation.
An emerging infection is defined as an infection which has newly appeared in a population while a re-emerging infection is one which has existed in the past but its incidence is rapidly increasing. The reasons for the emergence and re-emergence of infections are not well understood but appear to be associated with factors that involve the pathogen, the host and the environment. These factors are often inter-related and act together in a complex manner to bring about changes in patterns of infection. Pathogens are extremely resourceful and possess mechanisms to adapt to new hosts and environments as well as to acquire new virulence traits. Host factors include herd immunity, social behaviour and demographics. Environmental factors like the climate, deforestation and new technologies have an impact on the emergence of infections. The challenge is to contain an infection when it emerges but more importantly to prevent its emergence in the first place. As the emergence of an infection is complex and multifactorial, a multidisciplinary approach is required. Health based strategies alone are insufficient. Social, economic and environmental measures and the political will to implement appropriate policies are equally important.
A registry of patients with end stage renal disease was started from 1st January 1990 at Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Johor Baru. There were 126 patients in 1990 and 129 in 1991. The peak age was 31 to 60 years old; males outnumbered females 1.5:1. Forty-three to fifty-six percent presented with small kidneys. Seventeen to twenty percent of patients had diabetes mellitus. In 1991, the racial distribution of patients was Malay: 50.4%, Chinese: 39.5%, Indian: 7.8% and others: 2.3%. The incidence of end stage renal disease in Johor Baru district was 79 per million per year in 1990 and 86 per million in 1991.
Hospital University Sains Malaysia (HUSM) functions as the state referral centre and the only hospital for the state of Kelantan that can offer neonatal intensive care service. The deliveries in HUSM with grand multiparity, late booking and problems of late referrals resembles a hospital serving a semiurban rather than an urban community. A comparison between the year 1989 and 1991 showed marked improvement of perinatal mortality rate from 41.32 to 24.88, which is significantly better than the improvement achieved from 1987 to 1989 (46.0 to 41.32). This was possible due to a marked fall in the early neonatal mortality rate from 10.02 in 1989 to 5.45 in 1991 and fall in the stillbirth rate from 31.61 to 19.53.