Few Malays donating organs

THE Malays, who are generally Muslims, have shied away from pledging their organs although a fatwa (religious edict) allows them to donate or undergo an organ transplant.

Out of nearly 80,200 Malaysians who have pledged their organs, 65% were Chinese and 22% Indians while the Malays made up just 9%, according to Berita Harian.

The paper quoted deputy director-general of Health Datuk Dr Ismail Merican as saying that the lukewarm response was due more to cultural than religious convictions.

“Malays are conservative. They would even avoid a post mortem or have any organs separated from the body as it would be deemed disrespectful to the deceased,” he said.

However, the Malays top the list of those waiting for organ transplants.

Clinic raided for hiring unqualified doc

THE Selangor Health Department “raided” a clinic at the Sultan Sulaiman business centre in Port Klang for allegedly hiring an unqualified foreign doctor, China Press reported.

The 24-hour clinic was also supposedly involved in selling medical certificates for RM10 each, it said.

It is learnt that the clinic has an on-going court case in which it had been charged with hiring an unqualified doctor three years ago, the newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, the department’s medical division assistant chief, Yap Lam Soon, said that during the raid, a 27-year-old Sri Lankan was caught examining a patient at the consultation room.

He said the man, who was paid RM15 per hour, had no working permit or medical qualifications, it said.

He said the man had diagnosed 32 patients in his two days of work at the clinic.

Yap added that they also took some medicine samples from the clinic for examination.

Malaysia checks over 7,000 people in bird flu-hit villages

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The Kelantan State Health Department has checked 1,593 houses and 7,689 people in the five villages affected by bird flu, said a local official on Monday.

Director Dr Ahmad Razin Ahmad Maher was quoted by local BERNAMA news agency as saying that his department had assigned 173 staff to deal with the bird flu outbreak after the virus was detected in five villages in the northern state.

"These health examinations are necessary to prevent the disease from spreading as it can be fatal to individuals who contract it," he said.

The virus of H5N1 strain, which was first detected in BaruPasir Pekan Village, Tumpat District on Aug. 17, emerged on Sept. 3 in Belian Village in the same district before it was detected in three other villages last week. The H5N1 strain has the ability to cause severe disease in humans.

He said the department was cooperating closely with Kelantan Veterinary Services Department (JPH) to deal with the problem.

"Checks were held from house to house in the affected villages," he said.

Dr Ahmad Razin said two people from Belian Village had been placed in isolation ward at Kota Baharu Hospital on suspicion of having bird flu, but tests produced negative results. The poultry farmers in the country face losses of one millionringgit (263,157 US dollars) a day from Singapore's ban on Malaysian chicken imports after bird flu was detected in Kelantan.

Hardest-hit are 500 farms in southern and central states of Johor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan and Selangor, which normally export the bulk of 130,000 live chickens and 2.3 million eggs to Singapore daily.

Budget 2005: Doctors give it the thumbs-up

The Budget 2005 received the thumbs-up from medical practitioners who described it as “people-friendly, futuristic and well-encompassed”.

In promoting the tourism sector, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has included health tourism and education tourism, stating that there is great potential for growth in health tourism.

Abdullah, who is also Finance Minister, said Malaysia had succeeded in attracting 103,000 foreigners under the health tourism packages in 2003, with total revenue of RM58.3 million.

To further increase its contribution, he proposed to organise health tourism packages through coordinating efforts between hospitals and hotels, as well as establishing an international referral network; to encourage hospitals to obtain international accreditations and forge strategic alliances with leading medical centres in the world.

He also encouraged the private sector to establish Malaysian multinational health companies, relax immigration conditions for entry of foreign medical specialists, therapists and patients; and to support clinical research in health institutions to promote the emergence of clinical centres of excellence.

Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia secretary Dr Chong Su-Lin said, the budget is positive, although there is no mention of specific tax incentives.

“I guess the details will come later,” she said, adding that incentives are needed to upgrade the hospital facilities.

“Hospitals have always been working together with the hotels nearby, in providing accommodation for patients or their family members.”

She said hospitals are working towards being a one-stop centre for patients.

“By doing so, the patient’s family does not have to run around looking for a place to stay while the patient is recuperating,” said Dr Chong.

Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) executive director B. Sarjit Singh said MAH is a member of the medical tourism committee chaired by the Health Ministry.

He said the Tourism Ministry is also a member of the committee.

“There are special rates between the hospitals and the neighbouring hotels for patients and their family members. These rates vary from hotel to hotel.”

He is confident that with the Government’s seriousness in promoting health tourism, hotels would be able to provide better packages.

“We do not have to stop at providing accommodation at hotels but also at resorts and spas. While island resorts can be a good place to recuperate, spas can provide a form of therapy.”

Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Datuk Dr N. Arumugam said: “Allowing private patients to be treated at Government hospitals will also help retain doctors in the (government) service.”

He welcomed the additional sum of RM19.2 million being provided for the Public Health Programme, as in the last few years there had been the outbreak of communicable diseases like SARS.

On the intake of paramedic students, which according to the budget will be increased by 1,000, Dr Arumugam said there had always been a shortage of personnel in this area.

“The figure (1,000) is a good start.”

Working out costs of private wings

LABIS: The Government is looking at working hours and salaries of doctors and nurses and fees to be charged in the proposed private wing set up at government hospitals.

Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek said services to be provided at the private wing would be at par if not higher than those offered by private hospitals.

In his Budget speech last Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Putrajaya and Selayang hospitals will be the first hospitals to treat private patients from next year to make the public medical sector more attractive.

High failure rate of trainee nurses rings alarm bells

HALF of the trainees in government nursing schools failed to make the grade in their final examinations, reported China Press.

The daily quoted Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek as saying that the number of such trainees had reached a worrying rate.

He said the ministry would investigate the reasons for such a situation through a committee led by the ministry’s parliamentary secretary, Lee Kah Choon.

He said trainees in private nursing schools, who also went through the same training programme, had achieved a 100% passes in their examinations.

It was speculated that the unsatisfying entry qualification of nurses in government schools was the main reason these nurses did not do well.

MyVista ready for market

THE information technology (IT) marketing arm of the Primary Care Doctors Organisation of Malaysia (PCDOM, www.pcdom.com.my) is ready to market its open source Primacare and MyVista healthcare management systems.

Speaking to In.Tech at ACM 2004, PCDOM’s president Dr Molly Cheah said: “We’re targeting MyVista at government hospitals and have already submitted our proposal to the Health Ministry.”

“Our goal is to establish a reference implementation of an open source mission-critical hospital management application in Malaysia and to develop a business case for investment in medical systems,” said E-Cology Corp president, Joseph Dal Molin.

Canada-based E-Cology is collaborating with the IT arm of PCDOM, GHC Medical Informatics Sdn Bhd, on MyVista development and marketing.

Dal Molin also is a director of WorldVistA (www.worldvista.org), a non-profit organisation committed to the development of the VistA integrated hospital management software currently used in 173 Veterans Affairs hospitals run by the US Government, as well as other hospitals worldwide.

With the help of paid staff and volunteers, GHC ported and customised the public-domain VistA to produce the open source MyVista application specifically for Malaysia.

“MyVista is the first nation-specific VistA in the world,” claimed Dal Molin.

Its web-based e-telehealth function lets individuals view their personal medical records online, as well as add self-measured blood pressure, blood sugar and other readings – all of which can also be accessed by their doctors.

“At the same time, doctors will have full access to all their patients’ multimedia medical records from anywhere. We are currently testing interoperability between patient information captured at the primary care level with detailed medical records maintained at the hospital level,” said Dal Molin.

“This is in line with the Malaysian Government’s aim to maintain lifetime medical records on all citizens and it also allows more efficient use of medical specialists in supporting primary care,” said Dr Cheah.

So far, GHC and E-Cology have been testing the interoperability of patient information between MyVista and the Primacare electronic medical records and clinical management system developed by PCDOM.

Primacare earned PCDOM the 2004 ICT Excellence award in the Open Source Software category at ACM 2004 (see In.Tech, Sept 7).

Top psychiatrist turns 75, but isn’t retiring yet

IPOH: Tan Sri Dr M. Mahadevan, the country’s foremost psychiatrist, is turning 75 today but has promised to keep on going until he “can no longer move.”

Although retired from government service since 1984, the bachelor has yet to retire from his profession.

Dr Mahadevan runs a clinic at his home in Ukay Heights, Kuala Lumpur, for a small number of patients, whom he continues to treat by appointment.

The country’s former chief psychiatrist (from 1974 to 1984) is also famous for transforming the treatment of the mentally ill – from custodial to community care.

He set up the Re-entry Association for the Emotionally Disabled in the early 1960s, which provides rehabilitation at a house in Tambun Heights here and the Perak Society for the Promotion of Mental Health in 1970, also in Tambun.

Both societies were the first institutions in the country to provide mentally ill patients with supervised occupational therapy without being locked up.

“In the old days, custodial treatment for the mentally ill was to protect the general public rather than considering the well being of the patients,” said Dr Mahadevan, who is the founder and first president of the Malaysian Psychiatric Association.

He is also the former president of the Malaysian Society for Clinical Hypnosis, a founding fellow of the Asian Chapter of International College of Psychosomatic Medicine, vice-chairman of Riding for the Disabled and Perak Turf Club committee member.

His renowned case studies include that on the state of mind of Wong Swee Chin alias Botak Chin, the notorious gangster who was hanged in the 1970s.

“Botak Chin was not mentally insane but a distorted and misguided genius,” said Dr Mahadevan, who was awarded the Corresponding Fellowship by the American Psychiatric Association on May 19, 1997.

Dr Mahadevan is also the oldest polo player in the South-East Asian region.

He and his polo team emerged champions in the “Mad Heaven Tournament” at the Royal Selangor Polo Club last weekend.

Dr Mahadevan takes pride that many of his patients have been fully cured and leading normal lives.

“I have employed two former patients to look into my personal needs and to take care of my home.

“Friends have also graciously fostered former patients to give them another chance in life,” he added.

An old boy of St John’s Institution here, Dr Mahadevan studied medicine in Mysore, India, as a Colombo Plan scholar and later specialised in psychiatry in Ireland and in the United States.

Malaysia's first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, who was a family friend, then asked him to head Hospital Bahagia in 1967.

Dr Mahadevan's illustrious career is now the subject of a book. The biography, entitled Mad Heaven: The Biography of Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr M. Mahadevan, is written by Aneeta Sunderaraj.

Raja Muda of Perak Raja Nazrin Shah will launch the book at Carcosa Seri Negara in Kuala Lumpur today.

New option to study medicine

PETALING JAYA: Students intent on pursuing medicine will have a new local option from next year.

Monash University Malaysia (MUM) will commence its medical programme early next year, with an initial intake of 50.

Approved by the Higher Education Ministry and recognised by the Malaysian Medical Association, the five-year MUM medical degree will cost RM65,000 per year.

However, until their “purpose-built medical facility” is completed in 2007, students will spend their first two years of study at the Monash campus in Melbourne at no extra cost.

They will pay the same fees before returning for their clinical study at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru, said Prof Richard Larkins, vice-chancellor and president of Monash University.

“This is an important milestone for Monash and Malaysia too in view of the country’s manpower needs and the demand for medical programmes here. Although the first two batches of students will do their two years in Australia, they will be paying the MUM rate which is considerably less that what international students pay in its Australian college.

“From 2007 however, the entire programme will be conducted at MUM, although students will have the option to do a semester or two in Australia as both programmes are on par,” he said.

Entry into MUM’s medical programme, said Prof Larkins, would be competitive, taking into account not only academic performance but also the applicants’ aptitude and personality.

“We require high academic scores, at least 2As and 1B at A-level or equivalent. On top of this, applicants will have to go through a structured interview, which covers specific areas and an aptitude test on logic and problem solving abilities as well as the candidate’s personality.

“Unlike many other programmes, the human component is very important in Medicine,” Prof Larkin said during a media briefing at the MUM campus here yesterday.

He added that the university was currently in the process of appointing a dean for the faculty as well as hiring “quality lecturers.”

Interested candidates are advised to look out for enrolment advertisements in the local print media next month.

Kidney failure alarming

NIBONG TEBAL: Ten thousand Malaysians are expected to suffer from kidney failure in the next five years due to lack of exercise and poor eating habits, said Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.

He said RM30mil had been allocated to equip every district hospital with a minimum of four haemodialysis machines each by the end of this year.

“But these machines will never be enough to cater to the alarming increase in the number of kidney failure patients,” he told reporters after launching the Sungai Bakap Hospital’s haemodialysis unit yesterday.

He said there were now about 9,000 patients in the country seeking haemodialysis treatment, with an average 2,500 new cases reported annually.

About 35% of the patients, Dr Chua said, sought treatment at government hospitals and another 35% at dialysis centres run by non-governmental organisations. The remaining patients were receiving treatment at private hospitals and dialysis centres.

“It is more efficient and cost effective in the long term for the ministry to promote health education and the importance of a healthy lifestyle to reduce the number of chronic disease cases, including kidney failure.”

He said that under the coming Ninth Malaysia Plan, more money would be spent on fitness-related programmes and less on building new hospitals.

Believed to be set up in 1891, the Sungai Bakap Hospital, with 130 beds, is one of the oldest hospitals in the state.

Two Malaysians in hospital for bird flu checks

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Two Malaysians have been isolated in hospital after displaying symptoms of bird flu, which has killed 28 people elsewhere in Asia this year, a senior health official said on Tuesday.

A veterinary worker and a 10-year-old boy from a village at the centre of a second bird flu outbreak in Malaysia's north were hospitalised with cold symptoms, the official told Reuters.

Ramli Rahmat, director of the Health Ministry's disease control unit, said the isolation of the pair was a precautionary step after the latest discovery of infected poultry in Kelantan state.

"Both were in the affected area and had shown bird flu symptoms like fever and cough, so we have to isolate them," he said, adding that blood samples had been sent for tests.

Ramli said the boy was among more than 800 people screened during house-to-house surveillance conducted by the ministry in the area.

The Veterinary Services Department said on Monday 30 chickens and quails had died from the disease near an area where the virus was first detected in Malaysia last month.

Culling of some 1,200 chickens, ducks and birds within one km of the affected area began on Monday.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has been blamed for the deaths of 28 people in Asia this year. Birds in the latest outbreak in Malaysia were also suspected to be infected with the same strain.

The World Health Organisation says the H5N1 strain has a unique capacity to jump from one species to another and cause serious illness, with high mortality, in humans.

A 14-month-old Vietnamese boy died from bird flu at the weekend, but it was unclear if he was infected by the H5N1 strain, a Health Ministry official said on Tuesday.

Malaysia remains free of any confirmed human infection from the virus. Seven people were hospitalised with cold symptoms during the first outbreak but they were cleared.

Fresh bird flu hits Malaysia

MALAYSIA announced today its second outbreak of deadly bird flu in three weeks, near a northern village close to the border with Thailand where the disease was first detected.

The Veterinary Department said the lethal H5N1 strain of avian influenza was believed to be the cause of the deaths of 10 chickens and 20 quail in Kampung Belian, a village five kilometres from the outbreak announced August 17.

The discovery dashed plans to declare Malaysia free of the disease, which has caused massive losses among poultry farmers because of import bans imposed by the European Union, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines.

Hawari Hussein, director-general of veterinary services, said the dead chickens and quails were recovered by inspection teams Friday and that tests showed H5N1 was the likely culprit.

"The infection is still within the 10km radius and within the 21-day quarantine period," Mr Hawari said. "Therefore, we regard this as an isolated case."






The owner of the chickens has been screened and is healthy.

The discovery means that teams will cull 1200 chickens, ducks and birds within one kilometre of the village by tomorrow night to stop it from spreading.

A fresh 21-day quarantine on the area has been imposed, and Malaysia cannot be declared free of the disease until that time elapses and no new cases are discovered.

Malaysia's first outbreak was discovered in fighting cocks in the village of Pasir Pekan. A 10km quarantine was thrown up and half a dozen people hospitalised. None tested positive.

Chickens and pet birds in the area were slaughtered and inspections were stepped up at thousands of poultry farms nationwide.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has been blamed for the deaths of at least 27 people this year in Vietnam and Thailand, and Asia has been on edge for months to stop it from spreading.

About 100 million chickens have perished or were slaughtered in government-ordered culls, but the World Health Organisation says that H5N1 appears to be entrenched and flare-ups can be expected regularly.

Researchers in China caused a scare recently when they announced that H5N1 had been detected in pigs, but it was unclear whether the swine were truly infected or merely had traces on their skin or snouts.

Health experts fear that H5N1 could recombine with other forms of flu in pigs and be more easily transmitted to humans.

Malaysian officials believe that the flu entered the country from Thailand and have stepped up border controls, seizing thousands of live and frozen smuggled chickens.

Separate test for docs soon

MALACCA: Medical practitioners, who had to sit for a government examination previously with other civil servants to gain promotions, will have their own competency test drafted and proposed by the Health Ministry.

The test, designed for the medical profession, is being drawn up by Health Ministry secretary-general Datuk Ismail Adam.

Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek has instructed Ismail to review the content after he submitted an interim report.

The proposed test followed grouses by doctors and specialists that the government examination had nothing to do with the nature of their work.

The competency test for medical practitioners would replace the government examination, Dr Chua said in response to a question raised at a meeting with them at the Malacca Hospital here yesterday.

The Health Ministry has also come out with a proposal to give more attractive allowances to doctors, specialists on call and nurses.

The Cabinet committee on health, chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, would make a decision on the proposal, said Dr Chua.

Ismail had also been given the task to look at this proposal, which also considered nurses with diploma and degree qualifications.

Dr Chua said government hospitals needed more nurses as only 40,000 vacancies out of 170,000 available had been filled.

“It would take another 16 years to fill the vacancies.

“At the moment, about 3,000 people are trained as nurses every year but we need to double it.”

Dr Chua said six nursing colleges were built under the Eighth Malaysia Plan and more would be set up under the next five-year plan.

In his speech, he told the gathering that 48 million people sought outpatient treatment at government hospitals last year while 1.7 million were warded.

His ministry would carry out a health promotion drive to educate the people about healthy living, he said, adding that Abdullah would launch the fitness programme on Sept 12.

Patient Safety Council gets into gear

All medical mishaps, large and small, which occur in public hospitals will be documented and dealt with systematically by a Patient Safety Council.

Long in coming but nevertheless welcomed, the council will collect data on medical errors and negligence; investigate the root causes of such cases and recommend strategies for the safety of patients.

Above all, the council, to begin operations soon, will publish regular reports to keep the public informed of such matters — an indication of how critical patient safety has become in the overall agenda of the Health Ministry.

Currently, despite the rise in complaints reported in the New Straits Times on Sept 1, there are no statistics to help the ministry address the problem effectively.

Although an incident-reporting programme exists in public hospitals to help reduce the recurrence of certain kinds of errors or mishaps, the council will likely address larger issues surrounding patient safety and care.

Deputy Director-General of Health Datuk Dr Ismail Merican, who announced this today, said the council will also advise the minister on how to prevent and reduce adverse incidents in public hospitals.

The council will emphasise clinical governance and clinical risk management, he said at a Health Risk Management conference today.

The council, approved by the Cabinet in January 2003, will be chaired by Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Mohamad Taha Arif. It will comprise senior ministry officials, directors of university hospitals, presidents of professional bodies, the private sector, non-governmental organisations and the president of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association.

Thus far, two meetings have been held to finalise the council’s role and mission, terms of reference and strategies.

Six sub-committees will look into data and information, consumer education and empowerment, continuing education, medical safety, transfusion safety, and safe staffing and quality of work life.

Some 30 experts will be involved in the council and its sub-committees with the objective of getting feedback from both public and private hospitals and to ensure that findings are transparent.

"All of us in the health sector are aware that clinical risks and medical errors that infringe on patient safety do occur. The question is how many such incidents have occurred and where, how many get reported, how many are preventable, how many are considered serious, how many have resulted in deaths and what can we do to prevent or minimise such risks," said Dr Ismail.

He stressed that healthcare risk management entailed putting in place policies, processes and procedures for the prevention of risks and the averting of medical errors and facility failures which may otherwise lead to injuries, deaths and financial losses from insurance claims and lawsuits.

The "systems approach" to reduce errors was imperative, he said.

Although there should be acceptance that humans were fallible and errors had to be expected even in the best of organisations, he said mishaps tended to fall in recurrent patterns, regardless of the people involved.

Among the reasons why errors occur in the workplace is time pressure, understaffing, inadequately trained staff, inadequate equipment, fatigue and inexperience.

"The magnitude of an error can vary from a ceiling fan falling off to a generator-set exploding," he said.

But cases may not be reported or documented or may be considered insignificant unless they involve death or severe injury, he added.

He also pointed out that errors in procedures, mistakes in blood transfusion, diagnosis and treatment due to faulty laboratory results, radiological interpretations and mistakes in the administration of medications could lead to undesirable or fatal consequences.

Dr Ismail said that clear strategies to improve patient-doctor communication was essential in the outpatient setting.

The Health Ministry’s incident reporting programme monitors 30 types of incidents in hospitals so that lessons may be learnt to prevent a recurrence of such cases.

These include medical errors, adverse outcomes of procedures, falls in the wards, adverse transfusion reactions, wrong procedures performed, complications in the ICU, injuries to neonates during delivery, and problems faced by patients under anaesthesia.

Dr Ismail said these incidents were monitored every six months nationwide. Incident reporting is also required in the private sector under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998, which is yet to be implemented.

Medical aid for islanders

KOTA KINABALU: An outreach project to provide medical aid to communities in islands off Sabah was launched by Mercy Malaysia in a first joint effort with the Royal Malaysian Navy.

About 13 volunteers, including five doctors, sailed off on KD Gaya on a four-day trip to provide healthcare to over 1,000 people on Pulau Mantanani and Pulau Balambangan at the north of Sabah.

Navy chief Laksamana Datuk Seri Mohd Anwar Mohd Noor, who launched the “Sabah Island Relief Project,” described it as an opportunity for the navy to broaden its services in the country.

“This is an extension of our role of providing security to the nation,” he said before seeing off the volunteers at the marine police jetty here yesterday.

“The navy not only provides a safe and dependable means of transport but also ensures the security of our volunteers,” she added.

The volunteers, led by Mercy Malaysia vice-president Dr Mohamed Ikram Mohammed Salleh, will conduct health awareness programmes and medical examinations covering health screening, dental screening and deworming.

Medicines were provided by Pharmaniaga Berhad.

The islanders would normally have to take a three-hour boat ride to the mainland to reach the nearest medical facility and most of them only seek treatment in emergencies.

“The project introduces these communities to a standard of living typical for town dwellers and healthcare can be received on a regular basis,” Dr Jemilah said.

She said she hoped it would raise not only health standards of the islanders but also their living conditions.

Chua: Illegals contributing to rise in TB and dengue cases

MALACCA: Illegal immigrants contributed to the 345 cases of tuberculosis reported at the Malacca Hospital last year, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said.

There were just 186 cases reported in 1993, he added.

Dr Chua said dengue cases were also on the increase, with 632 cases recorded last year, compared to only 104 cases in 2000.

Until August, 459 dengue cases had been reported, he said during a visit to Malacca Hospital yesterday.

He said the state's rapid development and the stagnant water at construction sites also contributed to the increase in dengue cases.

On his ministry's projects in the state, Dr Chua said 15 projects, including the construction of a new hospital in Jasin, had been completed while another 11 projects are in various stages of implementation.

“Another 16 projects are still in the planning stages and are expected to be carried out next year,” he added.

He said a RM5mil Magnetic Resonance Imaging unit would be installed at the Malacca Hospital before the year-end while the Alor Gajah district hospital and two rural clinics in Batu Berendam and Tengkera would be upgraded next year.

“We also have to look into requests for more wards for orthopaedic, paediatric and neurosurgery at the Malacca Hospital,” he said.

Permanent doc mans clinic in Pangkor

IPOH: A permanent doctor is now manning the Pulau Pangkor health clinic.

State Health and Environment Committee chairman Datuk Tan Chin Meng said the doctor, who started work on Aug 1, had previously served as one of the replacement doctors at the health clinic, after its permanent doctor left for further studies.

“A few replacement medical practitioners had manned the clinic during the absence of the permanent resident doctor.

“Earlier reports that the health clinic was manned by a hospital attendant and that the resident doctor had been transferred out are not true.

“The earlier resident doctor had left to pursue a Masters Degree in Public Health,” he added.

Tan said the Manjung Health Department had made arrangements to station replacement doctors at the health clinic while waiting for a permanent doctor.

Bird flu-free status within a week: Latiff

Kota Kinabalu: Malaysia is set to be declared bird flu-free in a week when the 21-day quarantine period imposed in Kampung Baru, Pasir Pekan in Kelantan ends.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said that surveillance in the area had not detected any new cases of bird flu infection.

“All the chickens affected by the virus have been culled...in a week’s time Malaysia should be declared bird flu-free,” he said after opening the Second Asian Congress of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and 26th Annual Congress of the Malaysian Paediatric Association (MPA) at Magellan Wing Sutera Harbour Resort and Spa, here, Thursday.

At the moment, three government agencies were conducting both active and passive screening at the areas and “we will wait for another week, it is according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard.”

“We monitor and hope for the best,” he said when asked to comment on the situation there ever since the avian flu virus was detected in chickens.

He also stressed that no humans had contracted the avian flu virus in Kelantan.

In his speech earlier, Dr Abdul Latiff said emerging infectious diseases, once thought a thing of the past, were making a comeback not only in Malaysia but in industrialised nations as well.

“Resurgence has been made more apparent with the emergence of HIV/AIDS. Trans-boundary migration of workers and tourists has also made medicine and infectious diseases borderless,” he said.

Dr Abdul Latif said in this respect, the Asian region was vulnerable due to the wide disparity in healthcare and system structures between different countries.

“It is, therefore, highly probable that a disease contracted in one country can be detected in another within hours as air travel becomes more affordable and common,” he said.

Despite advances in modern medicine, infectious diseases remain a persistent scourge and the leading cause of mortality and morbidity particularly in developing countries.

“In Malaysia, 100 per cent of one-year-old children are immunised against tuberculosis, 94.1 per cent against diphteria-pertusis and tetanus, 93.4 per cent against polio, 86.2 per cent against measles and 91.1 per cent against hepatitis.

“The fact that we fall short of 100 per cent across the board means that there are still a lot of people out there who fail to realise the potentially fatal consequences of a single (vaccine-preventable) infection,” he said.

Toward this end, Dr Abdul Latif said an effective response to any new infectious disease threat would involve mobilising public health activities, requiring cooperation and open communication among various departments.

“Malaysia’s success in curbing infections such as the enterovirus 71, nipah virus (in the 1990s) and more recently the SARS infection, is owed to the cooperation of departments in the ministry, universities and private sector,” he said.

According to him, resistant organisms posed a major problem not just in the hospital where multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella have evolved due to the many antibiotics used in these hospitals.

Resistant tuberculosis has also made it harder for us to treat these patients, with poor compliance leading to the current problem, he said.

Dr Abdul Latif said newer and more expensive antibiotics were now required and the government needs to keep abreast with these advances. “The cost of newer antibiotics would eventually have to be capped in order to accomplish our quest of providing health and medical attention for the whole nation,” he said.

He also urged doctors to notify all cases of infectious diseases (in the notifiable diseases list) they encounter to facilitate production of data for the country.

Dr Abdul Latif also expressed gratitude to the MPA for working with the Government such as during the introduction of a combination of vaccines that saw the Ministry using Mumps-Measles-Rubella (MMR) vaccine nationwide for the first time following a re-evaluation of the country’s immunisation schedule in 2001-2002.

He commended MPA for the assistance in re-educating their less-informed colleagues (who initially resisted because they failed to understand the rationale for the campaign) on the advantages of the nationwide mass measles vaccination campaign introduced this year.

The three-day congress ending Saturday is aimed at discussing new ideas, approaches, systems and practices that can be adapted, improved and expanded to overcome challenges in paediatric infectious diseases.

Nearly 700 local and foreign delegates are taking part in the congress that would see papers on respiratory infections in children, paediatric SARS diagnostic and therapeutic challenges, update on community and hospital acquired infections and a special session on the avian flu.

Also on hand were MPA President cum organising chairman Pro Dr Zulkifli Haji Ismail, Asian Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ASPID) President Dr Rosalinda Soriano and State Health Department officials as well as Queen Elizabeth Hospital senior officers.

Other ways to check fakes

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry has been urged to work with the pharmaceutical industry to minimise parallel imports and counterfeit products.

Pharmaceutical Association of Malaysia president Dr Choe Tong Seng said the ministry should work together with the industry’s players before implementing the use of hologram on pharmaceutical products as there were other approaches that could be used.

He said the ministry’s current move to enforce the use of hologram on pharmaceutical products by Jan 1, next year, alone was inadequate if other measures were not taken at the same time.

“We support the use of hologram but other measures such as monitoring the distribution channel, carrying out heavier penalties, having more enforcement officers and educating consumers, should also be carried out,” he said.

Dr Choe was commenting on an announcement by the ministry’ pharmacy services division director Datuk Mohd Zin Che Awang yesterday, who said all OTC (over-the-counter) products, controlled items containing poison, traditional medicine and health supplements must bear the hologram by Jan 1, while products that need to be used in the form of injection must have the hologram by next July.

Mohd Zin said the aim was to curb counterfeit and parallel products and only cosmetics and exported products would be exempted.

“The ministry had signed a contract with a French hologram manufacturer and a local agent, Mediharta Sdn Bhd, and will be responsible for distributing and selling the holograms as well as keeping records of buyers,” he said yesterday after attending the bilateral meeting between Health Minister Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek and Indonesian Health Minister Dr Achmad Sujudi here.

Mohd Zin also said it would be difficult to fake the multi-layered hologram as it would take a lot of time to produce an imitation.

“Each hologram will have a serial number and the agent will record the name of the buyer every time the buyer makes his purchases,” he said.

A leading international pharmaceutical company pointed out that the use of hologram was proven to be ineffective as they had tried using it before.

“We have been using hologram for the past three or four years on our products but counterfeit and parallel imports still exist,” a source from the company said.

10,000 pedometers for visitors at launch of fitness council

KUALA LUMPUR: The first 10,000 people arriving at the National Stadium for the launch of the National Fitness Council later this month will each be given a pedometer – an instrument that gauges the number of steps taken during a walk.

“We hope those given the pedometers will use them and record at least 1,000 steps daily,” said Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would launch the council on Sept 12 before more than 30,000 people at the stadium in Bukit Jalil.

Azalina said Malaysia’s health aspect was becoming a problem.

“We need to exercise to stay active, healthy and united.

“But it would be pointless to exercise then eat nasi lemak and drink teh tarik after that,” she told a press conference at the stadium yesterday.

Azalina said the council would help in her ministry’s efforts to encourage Malaysians pursue life-long healthy lifestyles, good eating habits and sufficient exercise.

Three ministries, including hers, and the National Unity and Integration Department have banded together to form the council, to make Malaysians a more active and healthy lot.

The Housing and Local Government and Health ministries are the other two agencies involved in the council.

Azalina said the collaboration of the four agencies would also contribute towards the government’s effort to create a generation committed to excellence, glory and distinction.

Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek, who was present, said more Malaysians were suffering from diet-related diseases like diabetes and hypertension because of unhealthy eating habits.

“We need to start paying attention to having a balanced diet with plenty of vegetables, fruits and grains, and reduce salt and sugar intake,” he said.

Also present were Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili and Housing and Local Government Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Dr Subramaniam K.V. Sathasivaram.