In Malaysia malaria is still a major public health problem. At the end of 1986 it was estimated that 14.6% of the population lived in malaria prone areas and 8.4% lived in endemic areas. Malaria eradication and control programmes were instituted separately at different times in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. Inaccessibility of endemic areas, opening of lands for developmental projects and emergence of drug resistant strains of P. falciparum are problems that make control of this infection difficult. Malaria vaccine is being developed.
The problem of diabetes is large unknown due to lack of good epidemiological studies. The author's own studies showed a prevalence rate, in the Malays, of less than 1.0% in remote rural areas, 3.9% in a village close to Kuala Lumpur, and 3.0% for Malays working in a railway yard in Kuala Lumpur. The prevalence rate for the Chinese was 4.9% in the same survey, and for the Indian it was 16.0%. A survey in GHKL showed that 17.9% of the patients admitted for a month period in 1986 were due to diabetes and its complications. Majority of diabetes in Malaysia are non-insulin-dependent type.
Child abuse is as age-old problem which involves physical, emotional and sexual abuse and also the unauthorised administration of drugs to children. The problem does not arise from just a single cause or factor but is multifactorial. One big area is the presence of social situational stresses prior to or during the episodes of abuse. The author has carried out a retrospective study of twenty cases of child abuse investigated by the Department of Social Welfare, Kuala Lumpur from December 1979 to January 1980. This paper describes part of the findings, namely the social situational stresses. The findings are found to be similar to those of other studies, both local and abroad.