1.Effectiveness of pictorial health warning on cigarette packages: A cross-sectional study in Sarawak, Malaysia
Rahman MM ; Arif MT ; Abd Razak MF ; Suhaili MR ; Tambi Z ; Akoi C ; Gabriel Bain M ; Hussain H
Malaysian Family Physician 2015;10(3):19-26
Introduction: Specific health warning placed on the tobacco product packages is considered as an
effective and low-cost method for increasing the knowledge and awareness among the community.
Thus, a study was conducted to assess the perception of pictorial health warnings (PHWs) against
smoking among the adult rural population of Sarawak.
Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected from 10 villages in Kota Samarahan and Kuching
Division by face to face interview using modified Global Adult Tobacco Survey questionnaire. Nonprobability
sampling method was adopted to select the villages. All the households of the selected
villages were visited and an adult member was selected randomly from each house irrespective of the
sex. After missing value imputation, 1000 data were analysed using statistical software IBM SPSS
20.0 version.
Results: Analysis showed that 28.8% of the respondents were current smokers, 7.8% were past
smokers and the rest were non-smokers. Six items of pictorial health warnings were evaluated with
five point Likert’s scales for attractiveness, fearfulness and adequacy of the information. Analysis
revealed that the majority of the respondents had perceived awareness on PHWs, but the smokers
believed that this was not adequate to make them quit smoking. Only one-fifth (19.7%) of them
reported that current pictorial health warnings were sufficient to motivate people to quit smoking.
Conclusion: Though the PHWs on cigarette packages are appealing, it is not sufficient as a reason
to stop smoking. Thus, an approach using an integrated anti-tobacco public health programme
should be focused into the specific targeted community.
2.Time-kill and post-antibiotic effect of colistin at different static concentrations in in vitro Acinetobacter baumannii
Rasidin, R.S.M. ; Suhaili, Z. ; Mohamed, A.F.S. ; Hod, R. ; Neela, V. ; Amin-Nordin, S.
Tropical Biomedicine 2020;37(No.2):471-481
Nosocomial infection caused by Acinetobacter baumannii is common among immunocompromised patients. Treatment strategy is limited due to rapid resistance development and lack of novel antibiotic. Colistin has been the last line therapy with good in vitro activity against infections caused by multi-drug resistance A. baumannii. However, pharmacological updates are required to support dosing optimisation. This study aimed to determine the time-kill kinetic and resistance development after antibiotic exposure as well as post-antibiotic effect of colistin at different static concentrations in in vitro A. baumannii system. The static in vitro time-kill and post-antibiotic effect experiments were conducted against two clinical isolates as well as one reference isolate ATCC 19606. Time-kill and postantibiotic effect were studied at colistin concentrations ranging from 0.25MIC to 16.0MIC and 0.5MIC to 4.0MIC, respectively. Post-exposure resistance development was examined in time-kill study. Killing activity and post-antibiotic effect were in a concentration-dependent manner. However, delayed killing activity indicates colistin tolerance. Development of resistance after exposure was not detected except for the ATCC 19606 strain. Dosing suggestion based on the observations include administration of supplemental dose 3 MIU at 12 hours after loading dose, administration of maintenance dose 9 MIU in two divided doses and application of extended interval in renal adjustment dose. However, the information is applicable for non-colistin-heteroresistance A. baumannii with colistin MIC < 1.0 mg/L. As for heteroresistance and strain with colistin MIC > 1.0 mg/L, combination therapy would be the more appropriate treatment strategy.