Poverty related diseases amongst Malaysia's low-income community: a review.

Poverty, as proven by several studies, is a driving force behind poor health and hygiene practices. This review attempts to outline common communicable and non-communicable diseases that disproportionately affect Malaysia's 2.91 million low-income households. The current study also looks into the government's housing and healthcare programmes for this demographic to improve their health and well-being. The initial examination yielded incredibly little research on this marginalised community, with event reporting typically generalised to the Malaysian community as a whole rather than analysing disease incidences based on household income, which would better reflect povertydriven diseases. As a result, there is an acute need for more accurate information on the epidemiology of diseases among the poor in order to address this public health issue and provide conclusions that can drive policy designs.

A review of metal nanoparticle-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection Special Collection: Distinguished Australian Researchers

Monitoring an infectious disease early using highly sensitive and non-invasive techniques is critical for human health. Interestingly, the development of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for biological detection ideally fits these medical requirements and is rapidly growing as a powerful diagnostic tool. SERS can enhance the Raman signal of the target molecule by more than 10(6) after the adsorption of the molecule on the plasmonic nanostructured surface. This review provides an overview of the use of gold and silver nanoparticles in SERS substrate designs, followed by the development of these SERS substrates in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection.

Recent Development of Crowd Monitoring Technology Solution for Covid-19 Prevention at Airport Terminal

Public social distancing has been a great concern for the worldwide community as the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the COVID-19 pandemic as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). With regards to this global issue, this paper will share the latest commercially available solution and technology on crowd monitoring systems to determine the number of people in confined and crowded spaces at airport terminals which may have the potential for contagious diseases infection. Estimation of crowd dynamics is essential for crowd monitoring to ensure public safety by reducing the possibility of being infected by the COVID-19 virus. In this report a number of commercial and under development crowd monitoring products are reviewed and presented. Research and development of crowd monitoring technology is increasingly demanding to monitor crowds at strategic locations such as entry and exit points of closed areas to ensure public safety and to control the pandemic. In particular for the strategic area at the airport terminal, an efficient crowd monitoring solution is expected to support huge data collection and real time analysis, as well as providing online monitoring of crowds based on non-contact sensors for movement counting to restrain COVID-19 outbreaks. © 2021, Universiti Malaysia Perlis. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 infection among healthcare workers at Malaysia hospitals

Introduction Healthcare workers are at a substantially increased risk of being infected by COVID-19 patients. However, risk of being infected is depending on the critical phase of the pandemic, patients with COVID-19 might not be the absolute source of infection. Health workers could also be exposed to infected colleagues, infected family members, lives in communities of active transmission, or infected contacts during crowded events such as wedding reception and religious gathering. Objectives To explore the epidemiology data of COVID-19 infection among health care workers at Malaysia Hospitals especially on patterns of transmission and characteristics. Methods A cross-sectional surveillance study among infected COVID-19 healthcare workers working at Malaysia government hospitals. Results 1608 healthcare staffs at hospitals have been notified with COVID-19 infection in year 2020. By proportion, nursing occupation contribute up to 40.5%, followed by medical doctor (20.8%), healthcare assistant (9.7%), medical doctor assistant (9.1%), medical specialist (3.2%) and hospital administrative assistant (2.8%). Most of cases were reported from Sabah (39.8%), Selangor (27.5%), Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur & Putrajaya (6.7%), Sarawak (6.0%), Perak (5.6%) and Johor (4.7%). By gender, seven out of ten infected healthcare staffs were female and majority of them have no comorbidity (87%). In addition, rate of COVID-19 infection among healthcare workers was proportionately increased with rate of COVID-19 infection among community. Investigation by health authorities found 43.2% of COVID-19 infection cause by community, 36.3% occurred between staff to staff and 17% occurred between patients to staff. Conclusion Preponderance of infection has occurred within hospital environment. Occupational Safety and Health Unit should set up a good engagement with healthcare staff and effective strategies to protect and support the health, safety and wellbeing of staff through deep-rooted assessment of standard practice procedure especially in nursing and care activities. Digital contact tracing could improve contact tracing within hospital setting.