The Integrated Medical Response protocol (IMP) is a new protocol of medical response during the response phase of a flood disaster in Kelantan, Malaysia. It integrates response workflows of various rescue agencies involved in patient care during response phase of flood disaster. Traditionally, health care services in this region used either an all-hazard protocol or those not specific to Kelantan. The present study is aimed to test the effectiveness of IMP on knowledge, attitude and practice of healthcare providers (HCP) involved in managing patients during flood disaster in Kelantan. This study was a prospective parallel group, single blinded, randomized controlled trial. The unit of randomization was the district within Kelantan on a 1:1 basis into either the control or intervention group using cluster randomized method. The hospitals within the district were subsequently assigned to the allocated group. Investigators were blinded to the assignments. The knowledge, attitude and practice scores of HCP were assessed by FloodDMQ-BM© and was evaluated 2 weeks before and immediately after a flood disaster table-top exercise. Data was analyzed using two-way repeated measure ANOVA. Our findings showed that intervention was essential to improve the knowledge [F (1,100) = 6.947, p-value 0.010 (<0.05)] and attitude scores [F (1,100) = 31.56, p-value 0.001]. Meanwhile, practice score was improved in both control and intervention group with time [F (1,100) = 226.56, p-value 0.001]. Thus, our localized IMP specific to response phase of flood disaster was crucial to further enhance the knowledge and attitude levels among HCP while practice level showed similar improvement in both control and intervention group post table-top exercise.

Dengue Fever is a major public health issue in Malaysia. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and practice regarding dengue fever and effectiveness of health education programme among 204 students of Alam Shah Science School, Cheras/Kuala Lumpur. Study design was a cross sectional study followed by an interventional (pre-post) Study. The self-administered questionnaire included questions on sociodemographic factors, knowledge, attitude and practice regarding dengue fever. Majority of respondents were Malays (96.6%), monthly family income more than RM 3000 (64.6%) and lives in urban area (64.6%). There was no significant association between knowledge status and socio-demographic factors (p-value>0.05). Most of the respondents had good knowledge (63.2%) good attitudes (79.9%) regarding dengue fever. However, practices to prevent dengue was poor (74.0%). Only about one-fifth of the respondents (18.2%) believed that dengue fever is a flu-like illness. Knowledge score was significantly increased after health education programme (p value <0.001). There is a need to increase health education activities through campaigns and mass media to increase knowledge regarding dengue fever. This would help to inculcate positive attitudes and cultivate better preventive practices among the public to eliminate dengue fever in the country.