There is a strong need to reduce costs of hospital and advocating health economics in countries like the United States of America. The rising cost of healthcare globally especially in the United States of America has interestingly outraged the temper of many citizens about the Obamacare and Trumpcare. The issue about high cost in healthcare is the failure for people globally to recognize that healthcare facility is a 24-hour round-the-clock service. It therefore involves doubling of the utility bills, tripling the manpower due to shifts and rest, wear-and-tear of basic electrical devices is short-lived, breakdown period of huge machine is consistently due to overloaded usages in the government hospitals and poor knowledge of the maintenance programme. Low birth weights (LBW) is a public health concern because it has a well-known predisposition to increased risk for perinatal infections, respiratory distress and ultimately mortality. There is also a higher risk of poor health outcomes throughout the life course of the LBW newborns that includes Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, neurodevelopmental disabilities and cardiovascular diseases. The World Health Organization and United Nations Child’s Fund estimate the prevalence of low birth weights in the world ranges from 3% to 32%. Albania in the year 2000 recorded prevalence of low birth weight of 3% whereas Yemen recorded a low birth weight of 32% in 1997. In 2015, the US national vital statistics pointed out that 83.9% of preterm birth (PTB) are LBW. This indicates that prevention of PTB will lead to a decrease in the incidence of LBW.
Dengue fever and its fatal complications have made a comeback since its control in the 1990’s. The Flavivirus has evolved into 4 serotypes DEN 1,2,3,4 which can be passed on by the mosquitoes for 7 generations for each serotype. This communicable disease is predominantly confined to urban areas. Quick control of the spread of the disease will prevent it from becoming an epidemic. The two species mosquitoes involved have different behaviours. The Aedes aegypti is an indoor vector which breeds in clean, clear and calm freshwater. The Aedes albopictus is an outdoor breeding mosquito which breeds in stagnant waters. Surveillance of the areas prone to outbreaks is vital. One of the roles of the entomologist is to monitor the vector for resistance to the insecticides. Localities that have been subjected to recurrent outbreaks will have vector which develop resistance to the insecticides used.
Dengue is a viral infection caused by four types of viruses (DENV-1, DENV- 2, DENV-3, DENV-4) and transmitted through the bite of infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus female mosquitoes that feed both indoors and outdoors during the daytime (from dawn to dusk). These mosquitoes thrive in areas with standing water, including puddles, water tanks, containers and old tyres. There were a total of 35 dengue outbreaks under PKK KK with four active outbreaks in the year 2017. One uncontrolled outbreak occurred at Ibu Pejabat Kontigen (IPK) Kota Kinabalu from 16 November 2017 to 21 December 2017.
In Malaysia nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is ranked as number fourth (5.2%) from all cancer and third (8.4%) most common cancer among male population. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Malaysia mostly occurs among Chinese (49%), followed by natives of Sabah and Sarawak (28%) and Malay (22%). There were multiple researches done to determine the risk factors for nasopharyngeal carcinoma and most of them from western pacific region. Prevalence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Sabah in 2013 is about 106 cases while in 2012 is 75 cases. It shows almost 30% increment from previous year. A total of 53 patients were diagnosed NPC in 2013 from Kota Kinabalu locality and it contributes more than 50% from total prevalence NPC in 2013. NPC is common in local Sabahan, especially in Kadazan and Dusun ethnicity. In 2013, the youngest are 11 years old and the eldest are 84 years old. The upward trend of NPC cases in younger age group is worrisome for us. Thus it is very important to determine the risk factors associated with NPC and this would help the health provider and other stakeholders to do planning in prevention of NPC such as awareness programme or cancer screening for the target high risk group especially for Sabah population.
Since 1996, World Health Organisation (WHO) and member countries, through the World Health Assembly Resolution 49.25 acknowledged violence (including violence against women) (VAW) as a serious public health issue. The United Nations, at its Sixty-second General Assembly on 7 February 2008 not only reiterated the health impact of VAW but also the rights dimension of VAW and sees it “…as an offence against the dignity and integrity of the victim… and that all forms of violence against women seriously violate and impair or nullify the enjoyment of women of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and constitute a major impediment to the ability of women to make use of their capabilitiesâ€.
Infectious disease remains a public health concern in Malaysia. Efficient public health infectious disease surveillance is needed in order to address the issues posed by infectious disease. The main goal of public health infectious disease surveillance is to facilitate the control and prevention of the infectious diseases. For that, infectious disease surveillance needs involvement of multidiscipline either in government or non-government/private to ensure its success. General practitioners (GPs) have an important role in public health infectious disease surveillance considering their role and position as one of the main front liner medical personnel.
Over the last few years, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) as part of its global marketing initiative opened its doors to international students to take up elective as well full time programmes. In September 2017, 36 nursing students from a university in China completed a 12-week elective /mobility programme in UMS.
Melioidosis is a tropical infectious disease cause by gram-negative bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei. It is predominantly in tropical climate especially Southeast Asia and Northern Australia. This disease is associated with significant mortality due to early onset of sepsis.
Some call it climate change and some global warming, regardless of the term used, it has been deemed the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. It is the 13th goal of United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG). Multiple factors contribute to this global phenomenon including the anthropogenic causes which are man-made. The repercussions of this crisis are vast and bring effect environmentally and socioeconomically. These then ultimately lead towards an effect on individual as well as population health.
Since the 1970s, people’s understanding of life has gradually deepened into the basic material nucleic acid and protein levels of life. The life sciences have entered the era of “molecules†and produced a large number of new and interdisciplinary subjects. An important direction has had a major and profound impact on the development of epidemiology itself and on disease control.
PHC services particularly the ambulance call is traditionally a hospital-based system. Within the Kota Kinabalu area, there are 3 tertiary hospitals that provide the ambulance call service; and also provide the interfacility transfer, disaster management and medical team standby. How about the health clinics? Health clinics play a major role for primary healthcare and the interfacility transfer of patient from the health clinics to the hospital.
Community and nosocomial-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in Malaysian healthcare setting are terrifically increasing in recent years. There is an urgent need for an effective antibacterial agent to cope with this important issue. Due to the development of new antibiotics is not parallel with the increase of cases of infections, researchers have initiated isolation of compounds from natural resources to develop new potent therapeutic agent. Meanwhile, Ganoderma boninense is an oil palm devastating pathogen, which has been known to contain many bioactive compounds that might be potential to be developed as a new source of therapeutic agent.
Fascioliasis is a major parasitic disease caused by the liver flukes, Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica in Malaysia. On 31st May 2016, three cases of fasciolasis among humans were notified in Tuaran involving two localities.
New techniques based on digital analysis and more precise visualisation in monitoring of individual health status can improve the accessibility and reliability of healthcare services. An innovation in capturing human biofield energy level using Electrophotonic Imaging (EPI) is seen as a breakthrough approach to healthcare service. This non-invasive imaging approach produces an image, i.e. the Kirlian image in digital form to aid visualization and probe for disease identification. The diagnosis and treatment process are fast, reproducible and cost-effective. EPI technique works using computational models of human health state, commonly before and after a course of treatment or meditation. The reliability and efficacy of EPI are validated by the physician’s perceptions using biomedical measurements. At the same time, the algorithms developed by engineers embedded in the imaging system have advanced gradually with the help of clinical data from physicians. To close the gap between engineering and medicine, the field of research known as ‘Biomedical Engineering’ (BME) has been established to merge engineering principles with medicine in order to advance = diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring, which will in turn improves quality of life of mankind. Engineering approach is used to study on how the captured image indicates the energy level of human biofield. This elementary analysis introduces a pre-processing procedure to extract the effects texture. The image indicates the radiation energy level based on its most significant glow (digitallyimaged isolines) and is used for medical biometrics and health analysis.
As in other parts of the world, the practice of traditional healing has been part of the local healthcare system for most of the indigenous ethnic groups, since time immemorial. Using descriptive research format, this study looked into the practice of a traditional medicine practitioner in one of the villages of Kota Marudu in Sabah, Malaysia. The practitioner comes from the Dusun Tagahas subethnic group which is one of the numerous ethnic groups in Sabah. The large number of ethnic group in Sabah has made the research of ethnomedicine rather challenging. The practitioner acquired knowledge of traditional healing and treatment which is mainly herbal medicines alluded with some spiritual aspects. He used many herbal preparations in various forms and applications. Similar to the other traditional medicine practitioners, his knowledge and skill regarding his practice are impressive but the practitioner is unable to explain on the mechanism of how the therapy works. Generally their philosophy rests on the notion that disease responds to right medicine but not explanation. There is an urgent need to capture all the knowledge and skill possessed by traditional medicine practitioners, who generally belong to an ageing and fading population, especially those live in remote and hard to reach areas. Scientific research should be conducted to help traditional medicine healers and herbalists to understand their practices before they suffer the consequences of inexorable extinction.
Chest radiography, or chest X-ray (CXR), is not only an important tool for triaging and screening for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) but is also useful in aiding diagnosis when pulmonary TB cannot be confirmed bacteriologically. Sabah is a state with high TB burden with the incidence rate of 124/100,000 population in 2015. Access to chest radiography is limited in many settings in Sabah. In 2016, the TB and Leprosy Control Unit of Sabah State Health Department started systematic screening for TB with the help of a mobile digital X-ray unit.
In this era, most of us are suffering some level of respiratory problem. Respiratory system of our children is even more sensitive compare to adults. As our children spending an average of 8 hours in school, indoor air quality of the classroom become an important element. Many studies have shown that indoor air quality not only affecting the respiratory system of schoolchildren but their performance in academy as well.
Organ transplant has become a main stream important medical procedure commonly used in hospitals. However, for organ transplant programme to be successful, it heavily relies on the public to voluntarily register for organ procurement. Effort to promote awareness and register public as organ donors has been ongoing, but public response to commit and register as donors has been lukewarm. Arguably, healthcare personnel and nurses are in a key position to educate and advocate for organ donation but often, ironically healthcare personal themselves are reluctant or unwilling to commit as organ donors. Thus, in the context of student nurses in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), the question arises, what is their stance and views regarding organ donation.
Tobacco products can be classified into combustible and smokeless types. It kills up to half of the users and globally around 5 million deaths every year. There are strong associations between smoking and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) measures.
Childhood obesity poses global public health threat and has risen to an alarming level throughout the world. Environmental factors, lifestyle preferences and culture play important roles in the rising prevalence of obesity worldwide. Overweight children are more likely to be overweight or obese in their adulthood and therefore are at greater risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic ailments. Children occasionally become overweight on account of medical or genetic conditions. The main cause relates to poor dietary habits, inactivity or a combination of these factors. These situations also pose an emerging public health issue in Asia.