Using a questionnaire, a snoring study was done in 400 medical and 78 nursing students of University Malaysia Sarawak in 2004 and 2005. The response rates were 72.5% for medical students and 83.3% for nursing students. The habitual snoring percentages for all years, first year and final year medical students were 7.2, 9.9 and 3.6 respectively; and for all years, first year and third year nursing students were 12.3, 13.3 and 8.3. These figures were lower than those found in Hong Kong and Germany, despite similar body mass index (BMI). In the combined group of student, positive correlation with snoring was found in male gender (p=0.011), BMI (p=0.002) and sleep apnoea (p=0.05). For medical students, positive correlation was found in male gender (p<0.0005), weight (p <0.001), height (p <0.001) and sleep apnoea (p<0.001), and for nursing students in BMI (p=0.008) and weight (p=0.033). No significant correlation was found in snoring with Epworth Sleepiness Scale and academic performance.

Objective: The number of people surviving until old age has been increasing worldwide. Reductions in both fertility and mortality rates, better living standards, nutrition and health care are claimed to be the key factors that increase the proportion of aged people within the population. Nevertheless, growing numbers of older adults also increases the susceptibility to diseases that commonly afflict the elderly, such as dementia. In this article, we discuss on the current issues of dementia in Malaysia and its challenge in providing a better management and services for this population. Methods and Results: Review of literature by searching the databases CINAHL, SCOPUS, MEDLINE and PsychINFO from June 2010 to November 2010 was done on the issues involving dementia patients in Malaysia such as ageing trend, awareness and availability of services. Conclusion: Despite a limited number of studies on dementia in Malaysia, literature revealed the importance of acknowledging the issues and improving the services for the patients. Efforts should be made by the government and private sectors to promote healthy ageing in Malaysia.

Objective: The objective of this study is to identify the correlation between psychological factors and insomnia and the impact of insomnia on daytime sleepiness. Methods and Results: The participants were recruited through convenient sampling and consist of 173 working adults in Georgetown, Penang, aged 20 to 60 years. Participants completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). The results revealed that the prevalent of insomnia was 34.7%. There was a positive correlation between psychological distress and insomnia r = .481, p < .001 and also a positive correlation between insomnia and daytime sleepiness r = .334, p < .001. Conclusion: It is concluded that psychological distress typically causes sleep difficulties, and sleep deprivation leads to daytime sleepiness.

Objectives: Alpha thalassaemia is wide spread in Malaysia and is a public health problem. This study aimed to describe the carrier frequencies of α‒thalassaemia and its distribution among major ethnic groups in three states of Malaysia. Methods: Educational forums were organised and study was explained to students from three schools. Students were invited to take part in the screening with parent consent. A total of 8420 adolescent students aged 16 years volunteered to participate in the study. Peripheral blood samples were analysed for complete blood counts, haemoglobin quantification and typing, and serum ferritin levels. Genomic DNA was used for screening alpha thalassaemia alleles by PCR based molecular methods. Results: We identified seven α‒globin gene defects in 341 (4.08%) students: amongst them α+‒ and α0‒thalassaemias were detected in 232 (2.77%) and 107 (1.28%) students respectively. Genotype ‒α3.7/αα was the most prevalent among sub-populations of Malay, indigenous communities of Sahab and Indian, while ‒‒SEA/αα deletion is more prevalent in Malaysian Chinese. It is estimated that 63 pregnancies annually are at risk of Hb Bart’s hydrops fetalis. Conclusions: We have demonstrated the prevalence and mutation patterns of α‒thalassaemia in the 16 year olds in three states of Malaysia. High α0‒thalassaemia deletions amongst the study subjects place these carriers at an increased risk of conceiving fetuses with HbH disease and Hb Bart’s hydrops fetalis should they choose another heterozygous partner. It is therefore highly recommended to institute community screening programmes and provide prospective carriers with genetic counselling to help them make informed choices.

Objective: To determine abundance, distribution and diversity of potential breeding container habitats of the dengue vectors in public places including schools, restaurants, mosques and parks in southwest areas of Penang Island, Malaysia. Methods: Premises at restaurants, schools, parks and mosques were surveyed simulta-neously and inspected visually for container habitats and production of immature mosquitoes from March 2015 to March 2016. Abundance (mean ± SE) of breeding containers between sites was compared using One-way ANOVA. Independent sample t-test was used to compare total number of Aedes albopictus (Ae. albopictus) and Aedes aegypti (Ae. aegypti) surveyed. Results: The surveyed locations yielded a total of 3741 breeding containers and 19537 immature mosquitoes from four areas. Concurrent artificial and natural containers pro-duced 78.4%immature Ae. albopictus and 6.3%Ae. aegypti mosquitoes in wet season, with 14.2% Ae. albopictus and 1.1% Ae. aegypti mosquitoes in dry season. Artificial containers accounted for 98.1% of the total containers recorded, with restaurants being the most productive locations (8012) and schools being the least productive (2234). Conclusions: It was concluded that public places are good sources of potential container habitats of Aedes mosquitoes in Penang Island, Malaysia and Ae. albopictus has exclu-sively replaced the home-grown Ae. aegypti even in urban areas. Therefore, treatment of artificial containers in such locations is critical in Aedes mosquito control campaigns during dengue outbreaks.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are immune mediated diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract. Several environmental factors in concert with genetic susceptibilities can trigger IBDs. Recently, one of the important environmental factors contributing to the development of autoimmune diseases is vitamin D (VitD) deficiency. Furthermore, some new evidence points to VitD deficiency and its receptor dysfunction as an underlying factor for the emergence experimental IBDs. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the correlation between serum 25(OH)D concentrations and IBD activity in patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease. Sixty patients with confirmed diagnosis of IBD were recruited for a cross sectional study. Most of the identified confounders affecting serum VitD concentrations were excluded. Disease activity was assessed using validated questionnaires, including Truelove for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn Disease Activity Index (CDAI) for Crohn disease. Serum 25(OH)D concentrations were determined by chemiluminescent assay. Serum 25(OH)D≤10 (ng/ml) was considered as VitD deficiency and 11≤25(OH)D<29(ng/ml) as VitD insufficiency. Mean serum 25(OH)D value was 13.1 ± 11.1(ng/ml) in IBD patients. Almost 95% of patients were vitamin D insufficient or deficient. Forty one percent of IBD patients had active disease. VitD deficiency was not associated with IBD activity (p=0.23). However, VitD deficiency was significantly associated with a history of IBD related intestinal surgery (p=0.001). In conclusion, this cross-sectional prospective study suggested that there is no association between vitamin D deficiency and disease activity in a relatively small number of IBD patients in a short period of time.

A 63-year-old male presented with sudden diminution of vision, eye discomfort, redness and watering in his left eye. He had undergone glaucoma valve filtering surgery for refractive secondary glaucoma one week back. He also had a history of failed augmented trabeculectomy one year earlier in the same eye. Ocular examination showed best corrected visual acuity(BCVA) of 6/18 and there was a bleb leak, shallow anterior chamber and intraocular pression(IOP) of 6mmHg. Successful sealing of bleb leak was performed using fibrin glue resulted in deepening of anterior chamber with IOP of 13mmHg. This case demonstrates that, fibrin glue is an effective method for management of early filtering bleb leak.

To investigate the possible anticonvulsant effect of different extracts of Eugenia caryophyllata (clove) on pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-induced seizures in mice.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of quinine and chloroquine against male mice infected withPlasmodium berghei and their adverse effects on the mice testes. Methods: In this study, 48 adult male mice, (20-25 g), aged 8 to 12 weeks were divided into four groups. This study was carried out from December 2009 until May 2010 in the School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Results: The results showed that 58.33% of mice treated with chloroquine were completely recovered. Parasitemia was 4% on day 8 when compared to that on day 0, whereas it was 9% on day 9. There was no orchitis found in this group. The mortality of mice after exposing to quinine on day 5 was 8.3%, whereas from day 10 to day 14 it was 91.7%. We found 75% orchitis occurred in quinine treated group. There was a significant difference between quinine and chloroquine effects on the parasite and also mice testes (P<0.05). Conclusions: In this study, It can be concluded that male mice have full resistance to the quinine. Quinine does not only make male mice recover completely, but also cause inflammation on mice testicles tissue.

The aim of the Fourth Millennium Developmental Goal is to reduce mortality among children less than 5 years by two thirds between 1990 and 2015. Efforts are more focus on improving children’s health. The aim of this study was to describe the trend of stillbirth and neonatal deaths in University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre from 2004 to 2010. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted using hospital data on perinatal mortality and monthly census delivery statistics. There were 45,277 deliveries with 526 stillbirths and neonatal deaths. More than half of the stillborn cases were classified as normally formed macerated stillbirth and prematurity was common in neonatal deaths. The trend of SB and NND was found fluctuating in this study. However, by using proportionate test comparing rate, there was a transient significant decline of stillbirth but not neonatal deaths rates between 2004 and 2006. On the other hand, the neonatal deaths rate showed significant increment from 2006 to 2008. When both mortality rates were compared using proportionate test, from the start of the study, year 2004 with end of the study, year 2010, there was no significant decline noted. Trends of stillbirth and neonatal death rates in University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre within 7 years study period did not show the expected outcome as in Millennium Developmental Goal of two thirds reduction.
Stillbirth ; Infant Mortality