MyMedR

PIP: Pink Triangle, the only community-based group in Malaysia which works with men who have sex with men, took initial steps in August 1992 to establish a self-help project for people who are HIV-seropositive. Supporting people who are HIV-positive and fighting for their rights is new in Malaysia. The group has thus far been publicized through its public education events, hospitals, and other nongovernmental organizations. For the first time, information is being published specifically by and for people living with HIV/AIDS. The project also has a phone line to allow people to speak anonymously with someone who shares their experience. Many callers are men who have sex with men in the social context of intense prejudice and discrimination. Afraid to openly acknowledge their sexuality with strangers, the callers have yet to accede to meeting each other face-to-face in a group setting. The author notes in closing that Pink Triangle must be realistic about what can be achieved in Malaysia and allow the group to develop according to people's needs and not on the basis of a model imported from outside of the country.

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

The epidemiological situation of HIV / AIDS in Asian and Pacific countries

Petersen G

Natl AIDS Bull, 1991 Jul;5(6):28-30.

PMID: 12179697

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

Shifts in drug-taking threaten Asia

Gammelgaard J

WorldAIDS, 1992 May.

PMID: 12317433

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

Unsung heroes in the South

Panos Institute

WorldAIDS, 1991 Nov.

PMID: 12285096

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

Fulltext Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic: Pahang experience

Sapian, M., Sahhir, K., Rosnah, I., Ardi, A., Rohida, T., Azura, M, et al.

Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine, 2010;10(1):62-69.

MyJurnal

On 24th April 2009 the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) alert phase 4 which was later raised to phase 6 on 11th June 2009. By 11th October 2009, 199 countries were affected with 399,232 laboratory confirmed cases resulting in 4735 death. In Pahang, the state and district operation rooms were activated on the 28th April and 5th May 2009 respectively to monitor surveillance, control and preventives measures carried out. This study was done to describe the situation of Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) in Pahang from 28th April 2009 till 10th October 2009 in terms of laboratory confirmed cases and clusters reported, Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) surveillance, Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (sARI) surveillance and health education activities. During the period, 490 laboratory confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) cases were registered with 5 deaths. The age ranges from less than 1 year to 76 years with median of 16 years old. 207 ILI clusters were recorded, 139 (67.5%) were Influenza A (H1N1) clusters. For surveillance activity, 11,570 (2.2%) of outpatient attendances were ILI cases while 966 (2.0 %) of total admissions were sARI cases. There were 14,927 health education activities carried out during the period. The number of people affected by Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) in Pahang reached its peak in mid August 2009 and later showed a downward trend. ILI surveillance was a useful tool to detect Influenza A (H1N1) activity in Pahang.
Study site: Klinik kesihatan, outpatient clinics, hospitals, Pahang, Malaysia

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

Antiviral and virucidal activities of sulphated polysaccharides against Japanese encephalitis virus

Nor Rashid N, Yusof R, Rothan HA

Trop Biomed, 2020 Sep 01;37(3):713-721.

PMID: 33612784 DOI: 10.47665/tb.37.3.713

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a member of the family Flaviviridae, causes severe neurological disorders in humans. JEV infections represent one of the most widely spread mosquito-borne diseases, and therefore, it has been considered as an endemic disease. An effective antiviral drug is still unavailable to treat JEV, and current drugs only provide supportive treatment to alleviate the symptoms and stabilize patients' conditions. This study was designed to evaluate the antiviral activity of the sulphated polysaccharides "Carrageenan," a linear sulphated polysaccharide that is extracted from red edible seaweeds against JEV replication in vitro. Viral inactivation, attachment, and post-infection assays were used to determine the mode of inhibition of Carrageenan. Virus titters after each application were evaluated by plaque formation assay. MTT assay was used to determine the 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC50), and ELISA-like cell-based assay and immunostaining and immunostaining techniques were used to evaluate the 50% effective concentration (EC50). This study showed that Carrageenan inhibited JEV at an EC50 of 15 µg/mL in a dose-dependent manner with CC50 more than 200 µg/mL in healthy human liver cells (WRL68). The mode of inhibition assay showed that the antiviral effects of Carrageenan are mainly due to their ability to inhibit the early stages of virus infection such as the viral attachment and the cellular entry stages. Our investigation showed that Carrageenan could be considered as a potent antiviral agent to JEV infection. Further experimental and clinical studies are needed to investigate the potential applications of Carrageenan for clinical intervention against JEV infection.

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

Fulltext Kashima operation: an endoscopic phonosurgery by laser for bilateral vocal cord palsy

Alamgir Chowdhury, M., Farid Hossain Chowdhury, Khaled Bin Shahabuddin, Tofazzal Hossain, A.B.M., Shaila Kabir

Borneo Journal of Medical Sciences, 2021;15(1):31-35.

MyJurnal

Complete or partial restriction of the vocal cords usually occurs due to cancer, neurologic causes or mechanical causes like huge neck mass, trauma to the neck, viral infection, and sometimes iatrogenic during surgery. Bilateral vocal cord palsy is a severe condition that can lead to significant problems in breathing, speaking, and swallowing. If any patient presents with stridor, it requires urgent surgical airway management followed by specific treatment. A case of viral bilateral abductor vocal cord palsy in a 41-year-old female is reported here. The patient presented with stridor, and immediate tracheostomy was done. The stridor developed first 3 months earlier followed by cold and fever for a week. The stridor worsened gradually and leads to a state of commencing immediate tracheostomy. There was no history of trauma to the neck or any neck surgery. All basic laboratory blood test was within the normal limit. The laryngoscopic examination showed both vocal cords were immobile and almost median position with a small gap at the posterior commissure. Chest and neck plain X-ray along with computed tomography scan of neck was normal which ruled out the other causes of bilateral vocal cord palsy. The patient subsequently underwent successful left posterior cordectomy by laser, and decannulation of tracheostomy was done, known as Kashima operation.

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

Fulltext Pattern of antibiotics usage, perception and attitude towards antibiotic compliance among UNIMAS undergraduate students

Greta Miranda Goh, Awg Khairul Bin Awang Mohammad

Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences, 2020;16(105):7-0.

MyJurnal

Introduction: Increase in antibiotic resistance (ABR) worldwide, specifically in developing countries, requires the need to pay attention to self-medicated antibiotics, perception and attitude of ABR. Self-medication on antibiotics practices have a major pitfall, which is that users do not follow a prescribed course of drug and may usually stop the drug regimen once they feeling better. The spread of ABR is known to be associated with inadequate dosing, and incomplete courses which increases the actual cost of treating illnesses and social burden. This research is motivated by the alarming spread of ABR in Malaysia, the paucity of data on self-medication with antibiotics, and the alarming rate of pharmacy or drug stores that sell antibiotics and prescription-only medicines that are unauthorized to do so. Thus, the study has been done to observe the pattern of antibiotics usage of undergraduate students in a public uni- versity. Methods: Quantitative study with cross-sectional study have been chosen in this study and the target sample is localUniversiti Malaysia Sarawak(UNIMAS) undergraduate students with use of convenience sampling method. Besides, data collection has been done at main library (Centre for Academic Information Services)of UNIMASand students pavilion, UNIMAS by using the fully English online and hardcopy self-administered questionnaire adapted from previous study. Then, the data collected has been analysed by using SPSS Version 22. Results: In this study, 30.5% out of 403respondents have admitted that have taken antibiotics within 6 months and common reason of taking antibiotics given are fever, respiratory tract infection, and pain. Besides, there are 36% of respondents are not compliance to their antibiotics once prescribed with reason of already felt better and healed from the illness. More than 50% of the respondents are believed that antibiotics can treat the viral infection and work on the cold or coughs. For the attitude’s aspect, more than 60% of the respondents are expecting the doctor to prescribed them antibiotics when they are having cold symptoms and 49.9% will take antibiotics when they get cold to help them recover more quickly. Conclusion: This study has showed that there about a quarter of respondents (36%) still using antibiotics in improper method of consumption. Besides, some of the respondents have misunderstanding perception toward anti- biotics and bad attitudes on compliance toward the antibiotics. Thus, this problem from the young adult population could contributes to the increasing trend of antibiotics resistance in Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

Fulltext Sequence and Phylogenetic Analysis of the First Complete Genome of Ricetungro spherical virus in Malaysia

Kannan M, Mohamad Saad M, Zainal Z, Kassim H, Ismail I, Talip N, et al.

Iran J Biotechnol, 2020 Oct;18(4):e2566.

PMID: 34056024 DOI: 10.30498/IJB.2020.2566

Background: Rice tungro disease (RTD) is a viral disease mainly affecting rice in Asia. RTD caused by Rice tungro bacilliform virus and Rice tungro spherical virus. To date, there are only 5 RTSV isolates have been reported.

Objectives: In this study, we aimed to report the complete nucleotide sequence of Malaysian isolate of Rice tungro spherical virus Seberang Perai (RTSV-SP) for the first time. RTSV-SP was characterized and its evolutionary relationship with previously reported Indian and Philippines isolates were elucidated.

Materials and Methods: RTSV-SP isolate was isolated from a recent outbreak in a paddy field in Seberang Perai zone of Malaysia. Its complete genome was amplified by RT-PCR, cloned and sequenced.

Results: Sequence analysis indicated that the genome of RTSV-SP consisted of 12,173 nucleotides (nt). Comparative analysis of 6 complete genome sequences using Clustal Omega showed that Seberang Perai isolate shared the highest nucleotide identity (96.04%) with Philippine-A isolate, except that the sORF-2 of RTSV-SP is shorter than RTSV Philippine-A by 27 amino acid residues. RTSV-SP found to cluster in Southeast Asia (SEA) group based on the whole genome sequence phylogenetic analysis using MEGA X software.

Conclusions: Phylogenetic classification of RTSV isolates based on the complete nucleotide sequences showed more distinctive clustering pattern with the addition of RTSV-SP whole genome to the available isolates. Present study described the isolation and molecular characterization of RTSV-SP.

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases

Recent Update on the Anti-infective Potential of β-carboline Analogs

Faheem, Kumar BK, Sekhar KVGC, Kunjiappan S, Jamalis J, Balaña-Fouce R, et al.

Mini Rev Med Chem, 2021;21(4):398-425.

PMID: 33001013 DOI: 10.2174/1389557520666201001130114

β-Carboline, a naturally occurring indole alkaloid, holds a momentous spot in the field of medicinal chemistry due to its myriad of pharmacological actions like anticancer, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, antileishmanial, antimalarial, neuropharmacological, anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic among others. β-Carbolines exhibit their pharmacological activity via diverse mechanisms. This review provides a recent update (2015-2020) on the anti-infective potential of natural and synthetic β-carboline analogs focusing on its antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antimalarial, antileishmanial and antitrypanosomal properties. In cases where enough details are available, a note on its mechanism of action is also added.

Matched MeSH terms: Virus Diseases/drug therapy

Displaying publications 101 - 120 of 129 in total