1.Sociodemographic Profile, Contraceptive Practice and Awareness of HIV Infection among Unmarried Postpartum Women in a Tertiary Centre in Malaysia
Mustafa KB ; Noraziana AW ; Ayu AS ; Suhaiza A ; Awang M
The International Medical Journal Malaysia 2014;13(2):41-47
To describe the sociodemographic profile, contraceptive practice, and awareness of HIV infection
among unmarried post partum women in the biggest government hospital in Pahang. Methods: A cross sectional
questionnaire-proforma-based study was conducted for one year duration from August 2010 until July 2011
by identifying and recruiting all the unmarried women upon admission for delivery. Basic information were
obtained from the use of patients’ case notes, and further related and necessary information were obtained
from a direct face-to-face interview based on a proforma. Results: A total of 121 unmarried women were
identified and recruited. The age ranged from 13 to 36 years with a mean age of 21.6 years. 31.4% were
teenagers. Only 16% of patients have tertiary education, and 2.5% never had any formal education. About one
third of the women were smokers or ex-smokers, 7.5% had consumed alcohol, but none denied ever use of any
recreational drugs. Almost 9% has prior history of being sexually assaulted. About three quarter of the women
never used any contraceptive method. Majority of the patients (85.1%) were aware of HIV transmission risk;
75% never had any antenatal checkup or booked at late gestation (> 20 weeks); and 45.8% were not aware of
any support groups for single mothers. Conclusion: Single unmarried women are associated with disadvantaged
sociodemographic profile. Contraceptive practice was also very low despite significant awareness towards risk
of HIV infection. Further follow up, support and care should be offered to these women.
2.A comparative evaluation of dengue diagnostic tests based on single acute serum samples for laboratory confi rmation of acute dengue
CHUA KB ; MUSTAFA B ; ABDUL WAHAB AH ; CHEM YK ; KHAIRUL AH ; KUMARASAMY V ; MARIAM M ; NURHASMIMI H ; ABDUL RASID K
The Malaysian Journal of Pathology 2011;33(1):13-20
A prospective study was carried out to evaluate the sensitivity of dengue NS1 antigen-capture
ELISA in comparison with dengue virus isolation, conventional RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR for
laboratory confi rmation of acute dengue based on single-acute serum samples. Four primary healthcare
centres were involved to recruit patients with clinical diagnosis of dengue illness. Patient’s
demographic, epidemiological and clinical information were collected on a standardized data entry
form and 5 ml of venous blood was collected upon consent. In the laboratory, six types of laboratory
tests were performed on each of the collected acute serum sample.
Of the 558 acute serum samples collected from 558 patients with clinical diagnosis of dengue
from mid-August 2006 to March 2009, 174 serum samples were tested positive by the dengue NS1
antigen-capture ELISA, 77 by virus isolation, 92 by RT-PCR and 112 by real-time RT-PCR. A total
of 190 serum samples were tested positive by either one or a combination of the four methods
whereas, only 59 serum samples were tested positive by all four methods. Thus, based on singleacute
serum samples, 190 of the 558 patients (34.1%) were laboratory-confi rmed acute dengue. The
overall test sensitivity was 91.6%, 40.5%, 48.4% and 58.9% for dengue NS1 antigen-capture ELISA,
virus isolation, conventional RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR respectively. Statistically, dengue NS1
antigen-capture ELISA was the most sensitive and virus isolation was the least sensitive test for the
laboratory confi rmation of acute dengue based on single-acute serum specimens. Real-time RT-PCR
was signifi cantly more sensitive than the conventional RT-PCR.