1.Nosocomial nasal myiasis in an intensive care unit
NAZNI WA ; JEFFERY J ; LEE HL ; LAILATUL AKMAR MN ; CHEW WK ; HEO CC ; SADIYAH I ; KHAIRUL ASUAD M ; HEAH SK ; MOHD HISHAM H
The Malaysian Journal of Pathology 2011;33(1):53-56
A 73-year-old Chinese man was admitted to the Accident and Emergency Premorbid Ward of a
local hospital in Malaysia. The patient complained of shortness of breath with cough and was in a
semi-conscious state. He was later admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital. Six days
after admission 5-6 maggots were recoverd from the nasal cavity. The maggots were identifi ed as the
third-instar larvae of Lucilia cuprina Wiedmann (Diptera: Calliphoridae) based on the morphological
characteristics. This patient was classifi ed as having nosocomial myiasis. The presence of the third
instar larvae indicated that the infestation was not more than three to four days. An adult sarcophagid
identifi ed as Parasarcophaga rufi cornis (Fabricius) caught in the ICU where the patient was warded
provided further evidence of the potential for the nosocomial infestation.
2.Pteridine fluorescence in age-determination of immature Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius) and Chrysomya rufifacies (Macquart) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)
Roziah, A. ; Rosilawati, R. ; Nazni, W.A. ; Norazizah, A. ; Khairul Asuad, M. ; Lee, H.L.
Tropical Biomedicine 2019;36(2):488-494
In the practice of forensic entomology, the chronological age of the maggots
retrieved from the cadaver is used to determine the minimum post-mortem interval (mPMI)
i.e. minimum time of death. The conventional method of aging the maggots is based on
measuring the growth rate of these maggots. Although effective, the constraint associated
with conventional method necessitates the development of new age determination method,
such as pteridine determination. Pteridine, a by-product of protein metabolism in insects is
known to correlate with the age of a variety of dipterans. A number of studies were
conducted on aging the adults of forensically important flies. In this study, pteridine was
extracted from Chrysomya megacephala and Chrysomya rufifacies maggots of known
age using established methods and determined by measuring the fluorescence at excitation
of 330nm and the emissions between 350nm and 600nm. Results exhibited significant
positive linear relationships between the pteridine accumulations and age of the fly
immature. Pteridine determination is a potential new age determination tool that can be
used to determine mPMI.
3.PesTrapp mobile app: A trap setting application for real-time entomological field and laboratory study
Cheong, Y.L. ; Rosilawati, R. ; Mohd-Khairuddin, C.I. ; Siti-Futri, F.F. ; Nur-Ayuni, N. ; Lim, K.H. ; Khairul-Asuad, M. ; Mohd-Zahari, T.H. ; Mohd-Izral, Y.U. ; Mohd-Zainuldin, T. ; Nazni, W.A. ; Lee, H.L.
Tropical Biomedicine 2021;38(No.2):171-179
Diseases such as malaria, dengue, Zika and chikungunya remain endemic in many countries. Setting and deploying traps to capture the host/vector species are fundamental to understand their density and distributions. Human effort to manage the trap data accurately and timely is an exhaustive endeavour when the study area expands and period prolongs. One stop mobile app to manage and monitor the process of targeted species trapping, from field to laboratory level is still scarce. Toward this end, we developed a new mobile app named “PesTrapp” to acquire the vector density index based on the mobile updates of ovitraps and species information in field and laboratory. This study aimed to highlight the mobile app’s development and design, elucidate the practical user experiences of using the app and evaluate the preliminary user assessment of the mobile app. The mobile app was developed using mobile framework and database. User evaluation of the mobile app was based on the adjusted Mobile App Rating Scale and Standardized User Experience Percentile Rank Questionnaire. The process flows of system design and detailed screen layouts were described. The user experiences with and without the app in a project to study Aedes surveillance in six study sites in Selangor, Malaysia were elucidated. The overall mean user evaluation score of the mobile app was 4.0 out of 5 (SD=0.6), reflects its acceptability of the users. The PesTrapp, a one-stop solution, is anticipated to improve the entomological surveillance work processes. This new mobile app can contribute as a tool in the vector control countermeasure strategies.