Materia Medica Malaysiana

R&D efforts vital to fight emergence of new diseases

The nation needs to conduct more research and development (R&D) in the medical field to enable the country to combat the emergence and re-emergence of new diseases, Health Ministry deputy director-general Datuk Dr Ismail Merican said today.

He said it was also important for the country to have more trained personnel and scientists and most importantly, a good infrastructure to realise the effort.

"Over the years, we have been affected by the Nipah virus, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the latest, being the avian flu.

"We cannot predict what is next but if we have a strong R&D base, I am confident Malaysia will be able to deal with all these medical threats," he told reporters after opening a two-day meeting on neglected diseases group at the Paradise Sandy Bay Hotel here.

Present were Access to Medicine Campaign Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) director Ellen T. Hoen, 2002 Nobel Prize winner for medicine Sir John Sulston, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiatives (DNDI) president Dr Yves Champey and event organising committee chairman Professor Dr V Navaratnam.

About 100 participants from over 20 countries attended the meeting, jointly organised by the National Centre for Drug Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia and the international humanitarian medical organisation MSF.

Acknowledging that the nation had learnt a bitter lesson during the the Nipah virus outbreak in 1999, Dr Ismail said the country would now have to keep track with the global scenario to ensure the country could better prepared itself in times of "trouble".

"This should not be a one-man battle but one which involves the people of the world," he said, adding that apart from R&D, human behaviour also played a vital role to fight new diseases.