ABSTRACT
Globally, COVID-19 has infected over millions of people worldwide. The first COVID-19 case in Malaysia was imported from Singapore on 24th January 2020. Since then, many more local cases had been reported with the basic reproduction value reaching 3.5. The government has thus implemented the Movement Control Order (MCO) from 18th March to 12th May, and Conditional MCO from 13th May to 9th June, as preventive measures to lower the R-nought (Ro) value to about 1. In hindsight, this pandemic has exposed our limitations, unpreparedness and imprudent resource allocations in coping with the consequences, besides posing a monumental challenge to recovery. This article describes the COVID-19 scenario in Malaysia and explores its preemptive framework for socio-economic mitigation measures to maintain economic health and recovery, as well as strengthening the nation’s healthcare system. Several opportunities (research grants for COVID-19 and the Internet of Things) and issues (prediction of COVID-19 cases without MCO and global superpower shifts) that emerged due to the crisis that may directly or indirectly affect the country are also highlighted. © 2022
ABSTRACT
Campaigns for global ban of wildlife trade and consumption have been carried out extensively since the emergence the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) at the end of 2019. However, there was reportedly an initiative to use sun bear bile to treat this zoonotic disease in China. This new development may endanger sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) in Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia, because around 60% of the traditional Chinese medicine shops offer the bear’s parts for treating various ailments. In our opinion, wildlife bans and conservative efforts need to be addressed systematically by strengthening law enforcement and banning wildlife product consumption and trade on various platforms, regardless of cultural belief. A movement control order is also proposed at forest reserve areas and national parks during the night or at certain periods. Collaborations are needed between enforcement agencies (e.g. Department of Wildlife and National Parks, police, the armed forces and Customs Department) to patrol protected forests and border smuggling points, besides adoption of the latest surveillance technology to keep the trade in check (e.g. long range drones with infrared thermal imaging system and geographic information system for crime mapping). Citizens can also play their role in aiding the effort through various awareness programmes and helping enforcement agencies by joining the People’s Volunteer Corps. Banning of wildlife trade and consumption, if globally monitored and enforced, may bring benefits to the world like preventing the spread of zoonotic diseases and wildlife sustainability. © 2022
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has claimed more than four million lives worldwide. Daily cases and death rates are on the rise and, unfortunately, the therapeutic vaccine or drug treatment is still nowhere to be found. Finding a cure for viruses is not easy, as vaccine and drug development may take many years of trial and error. There is, however, a way to speed up the process by repurposing the available drugs on the market. Considering that all physico-chemical properties, efficacy, and safety profiles of the drugs have been established, we believe that by repurposing drugs, it would provide a short cut in finding a cure for COVID-19. In the second opinion, we believe that a combination of drugs will also be beneficial in preventing a recurrence of infection. Thus, here we highlight several combinations of drugs that have potential to treat COVID-19. © 2021. Penerbit UMT. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic is a serious threat to human health. Governments worldwide have put urgent measures in place to deal with this threat. Considerable experiences have been gained during this process, and they have gone a long way towards developing effective management strategies to control the spread of the coronavirus. Nonetheless, it is important that these efforts should be underpinned by investigations based on medical science. In this letter, we advocate widespread screening of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) markers and other immunologically significant genetic loci. We believe that these data will allow medical professionals to establish schedules of relative risk on patients following exposure to COVID-19. We suggest that this survey be facilitated by the establishment of a “biobank” containing samples from symptomatic and non-symptomatic individuals who test positive for COVID-19. © 2021. Penerbit UMT
ABSTRACT
New data on several COVID-19 infection parameters are slowly beginning to emerge which include the relative frequencies of symptomatic versus asymptomatic individuals positive for COVID-19, individual variation in response to re-purposed drug treatments, prognostic factors for developing severe COVID-19 and genetic risk factors for COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. From a larger perspective, it is our view that these parameters endorse the call for greater efforts in personalised medicine, especially when specific pharmacological interventions (i.e. vaccines or drugs to COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases) are yet to be developed. Here, the aim of personalised medicine would be to rapidly identify vulnerable individuals and subsequently to design better treatment regimens for them, should COVID-19 or other pandemics appear in future. Application of genomic technology also will continue to be of importance to gain knowledge about the biology of the virus and will facilitate vaccine development and predict markers of resistance and/or susceptibility. © 2021. Penerbit UMT
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic is due to SARS-CoV-2 and is spreading into 215 countries in the world. The COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease, and human to human transmission is possible via direct and indirect contact with infected individuals and contaminated surfaces. Recently, captive species of wild cats were tested positive for the COVID-19, and this is evidence of possible transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from human to animal, i.e., zooanthroponosis. In particular, the zoos should reduce the risk of introducing SARS-CoV-2 to the captive animals from the tourists or their workers. The risks can be reduced by implementing the preventive measure responses following the emergence of zoonotic disease. In this commentary article, we provide the existing disease control measures and have proposed several other preventive measures for the management of zooanthroponosis in various zoos located in Peninsular Malaysia. © 2021, Penerbit UMT. All Rights Reserved
ABSTRACT
A signifcant concern of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the dramatic decrease in the number of blood donation drives across Malaysia. The pandemic is putting a strain on the blood inventory and supply, especially to transfusion-dependent patients;i.e., thalassemia major, sickle cell disease and cancer patients. This is a retrospective cross-sectional study carried out at the Transfusion Medicine Unit, Hospital USM from December 2019 to April 2020. Data on blood donation and blood component usage were collected and tabulated three months (18th December 2019 to 17th March 2020) before movement control order (MCO) and during the frst phase of MCO (18th March to 17th April 2020). Whole blood units that were donated via mobile drives were predominantly affected with the number of blood donors in blood mobiles decreased by 80.7% during MCO. The decreasing pattern was due to the cancellation of 25 mobile drives, which targeted 1267 blood donors. Blood usage was also escalating down to 840 during the CO, which was due to no elective operations, admissions, or procedures done during the MCO. Routine blood donation and collection thus need to be resumed in less affected areas to meet the clinical needs with greater precaution against COVID-19 infections. © 2021, Penerbit UMT. All Rights Reserved