Antifungal Properties of Malaysian Tualang Honey and Stingless Bee Propolis against Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans.

Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans can cause life-threatening infections, especially in immune-compromised patients. Treatment with currently available antifungal agents may lead to severe side-effects and emergence of resistant strains. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antifungal properties of MTH and SBP against C. albicans and C. neoformans. Broth dilution method was used to assess the antifungal properties of the MTH and propolis. Different concentrations of the MTH and propolis (0.78 mg/mL – 50.00 mg/mL) in two-fold dilutions were tested against each fungus to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) which was done by visual inspection and spectrophotometric (MIC95) reading at 620 nm. Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) was obtained by culturing on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar. Total phenolic acids and flavonoids contents were also determined by Folin-Ciocalteu and colorimetric assay respectively. The MICs of the MTH against C. albicans and C. neoformans by visual inspection were 6.25 mg/mL and 1.56 mg/mL respectively, meanwhile 6.25 mg/mL and 3.13 mg/mL by spectrophotometric reading. The MFCs of the MTH against C. albicans and C. neoformans were 12.50 mg/mL and 6.25 mg/mL respectively. The MICs of SBP against C. albicans and C. neoformans by visual inspection were both 1.56 mg/mL whereas spectrophotometric reading recorded MICs of 3.13 mg/mL and 1.56 mg/mL respectively. The MFCs of SBP against C. albicans was 6.25 mg/mL and 3.13 mg/mL for C. neoformans. The total phenolic acids and flavonoids contents of MTH were 275.6 mg gallic acid/kg and 71.8 mg quercetin/kg respectively whereas for SBP, the phenolic acids content was 1754.2 mg gallic acid/kg and the flavonoids content was 82.6 mg quercetin/kg. MTH and SBP exhibited significant antifungal activities against C. albicans and C. neoformans. Their antifungal activities might be attributed to the high phenolic acids and flavonoids. This result suggests that MTH and SBP could potentially be used as alternative therapeutic agents against these fungi.

Awareness of Tadika’s (Kindergarten) Children towards Healthy Lifestyle in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

Health is a common need for every human being. Six point six (6.6) million children under the age of five died in 2012. These child deaths are due to conditions that could be prevented or treated with access to simple and cheap interventions. Leading causes of death in under-five children are pneumonia, preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia, diarrhoea and malaria. School is the primary place of awareness and actually education enlighten people to practice safe-lifestyle. Therefore, World Health Organisation (WHO) launched in 1995 a Global School Health Initiative to incorporate health education in schools for children. Therefore, the current study was conducted with objective is to identify children’s awareness towards healthy lifestyle in the aspects of eating behavior, personal hygiene and physical activities. The specific objectives are: to evaluate the awareness level of children towards healthy lifestyle; to identify the attitude level of children in practicing healthy lifestyle; to document and correlate the level of awareness and attitude of children in practicing healthy lifestyle. Current study is a cross sectional study and conducted among children of a kindergarten named Tadika Nurul Iman As- Siddiq, Malaysia. Present study population was 60 children. All the students are Malay in race and religion is Islam. Sixty-eight percent of kids are familiar with the types of food to stay healthy. They also agreed (78%) that knowledge of healthy food is important. Proper authority should take initiative to conduct prospective research. Therefore necessary measures and interventions can be initiative in very early to have healthier Malaysian national.

Comparative study of professionalism of future medical doctors between Malaysia and Bangladesh.

Every profession has its particular social responsibilities. Thus, professionalism is the foundation of medicine’s indenture with humanity. The schooling and refinement of professionalism has long been part of medical education. Recently professionalism is recognized as a fundamental qualification in both developed and developing countries. The objective of this study was to scrutinize and compare the professionalism of medical students of Malaysia and Bangladesh. This was Cross-sectional study conducted on 1208 Year-I to Year-V MBBS students of session 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, from Malaysia and Bangladesh. Data was collected using a validated instrument. Only 42% respondents were male and the rest 58% were female. Total mean professionalism scores for male was 177.57 and female was 175.82. Again total score of professionalism of Malaysia and Bangladesh were 175.50 and 177.14 respectively. Significant differences observed between gender (p=0.026) and country (p=0.044) in total scores of elements of professionalism. The present study found there has almost equal level of understanding on principal humanistic concerns of professionalism. Between gender and country there are significant differences. Professionalism should be incorporate in undergraduate and postgraduate medical course curriculum. Henceforth, communities will have rational prescriber for the common marginalized people.

Assessment of Bangladeshi Interns' Knowledge of Pharmacology and Therapeutics for Prescribing.

Every medical graduate must have the intention to prescribe rationally. It is pharmacology which teaches rational of prescribing correct drug in undergraduate medical course. Therefore many eminent medical educationists believe that pharmacology is the most essential part of the medical curriculum. Medical graduates join as interns in their respective teaching hospital immediately after graduation. Although interns work is usually under the supervision of a senior consultant but there are occasions, when they need to make their own decision. Again drug market in Bangladesh, like many other countries, is rapidly expanding. Henceforth, interns’ are sometime confused to choose a drug from therapeutic choices. This study was conducted with the intention to provide some light about the knowledge of pharmacology among the Bangladeshi interns. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on Interns (n=191) of six medical schools of Bangladesh. Validated instrument was used to uptake the data. These medical schools are both government and private but Bangladesh has unique curriculum for all medical schools. Out of these 191 participants 81 (42%) rated pharmacology knowledge is good, while another 77 (40%) had average understanding. As high as 80% (152) intern population feel that undergraduate training has prepared them to prescribe safely. One hundred seventeen (61%) interns have already observed cases of adverse drug reactions in their short active clinical life. Although it is a cross sectional study with its limitations, has identified that pharmacology and therapeutics course curriculum is not enough to produce safe prescribers.

Preference of teaching and learning methods in a new medical school of Malaysia.

Teaching and learning are the two sides of a coin. Henceforth, there is a strong correlation between the methods used in delivering the information by the lecturers and the assimilation of that knowledge by the students. MBBS programme of FPSK, UniSZA, is divided into two phases, preclinical (Year I and II) and clinical (Year III, IV and V) phases. The main teaching and learning methods for preclinical phase include lecture, tutorial, practical, problem based learning (PBL) and early clinical exposure (ECE). This cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2013 in UniSZA, Malaysia. 50 respondents from preclinical phase were randomly selected from total 117 students to answers the questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed with extensive literature review and pretested and validated. The questionnaire has been divided into 5 sections. The data were analysed using the SPSS 17.0. This study showed that 36 (72%) out of 50 respondents chose lecture as the most preferred teaching and learning method. Five (10%) out of 50 respondents preferred tutorial and 3 (6%) out of 50 respondents preferred PBL, practical and ECE respectively. None of the respondents chose Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) as a preferred method. Probably learning guideline of CAL is not clear that make the session the most unpreferred. Majority of the students in preclinical phase preferred lecturer/teacher-centred learning session to acquire knowledge in a medical school.

Stress Among Preclinical Medical Students of University Sultan Zainal Abidin.

It is well known that medical students often face many difficulties during their studies in medical school. Stress is the feeling which is created when a person react to the particular events. It makes you feel threatened or upset. Stress is a combination of psychological, physiological and behavioral reactions that people have in response to event that challenge them. This is a cross sectional study and was conducted in FPSK, UniSZA, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. An instrument on stress assessment was developed through extensive review of literatures. Questionnaire was pretested and validated. A total of 60 questionnaires were given to the preclinical medical students of UniSZA. Study subjects were selected randomly. Current study found out that 47 (78.3%) students might be having stress related problem. Major cause of stress is academic because of curricular overload. The dominant approach to cope with stress is prayer in this medical school. Coping stress in medical student life is one of most important quality. Therefore students should be taught different stress management techniques to improve their ability to cope with a demanding professional course. The hostel related issues and recreational facilities should be improved as far as possible within limited funds.

Genetics of obesity: an overview of current approaches and advancement.

Elucidation of obesity susceptibility genes through genome wide approaches as well as candidate gene approaches provides great promise in ultimately determining the genetic underpinnings of obesity. The complex nature of human obesity stems from the multiple interaction of several genes that control the physiology of food intake, energy expenditure, development of the body, and behavioural patterns towards food intake, and the environment. According to twin, adoptees and family studies, genetic factors account for 40-70% of the variability observed in human adiposity. Twin studies supported that the heritability of adiposity is higher than other quantitative traits. The heritability of obesity traits has been further evidenced by identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and genes through methods such as genome-wide scans (studies conducted on unrelated obese individuals), linkage analyses (conducted in families), and association studies (investigating the correlation between obesity and polymorphisms). The number of contributing genes, however, is still unknown. Although research on the genetic basis of obesity has advanced, the mechanisms underlying the condition are still complex due to its heterogeneity even within families.