Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and sexually transmitted infections. Cervical cancer is the third most common malignancy among the women worldwide. The primary tool for prevention of cervical cancer is through the HPV vaccination. Pre-clinical year medical students must have background knowledge about HPV vaccination as they become healthcare providers, who will play an important role in influencing patients’ decision to receive vaccination. If their knowledge on the HPV is low this will result in poor attitude towards its prevention. This study was aimed to determine the knowledge of HPV vaccine and cervical cancer as well as the acceptance of HPV vaccination among pre-clinical year medical students. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among 83 pre-clinical year medical students in National Defence University of Malaysia (NDUM). A set of self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the respondents to gather the data. Although almost half of respondents (46.3%) did not know the exact indication for HPV vaccination Most of them perceived that HPV vaccine can protect against the cervical cancer (64.4%) and it is as important as Hepatitis B or Haemophilus influenzae vaccines in Malaysia (54.9%). Substantial proportion of the respondents (47.6%) disagreed that HPV vaccination will diminish the need for annual Pap smear testing. The findings of this study show that being a pre-clinical year student does not warrant good knowledge and prevention of HPV infection. There is a need to obtain more information about HPV vaccination effects on cervical cancer in their medical school teaching and from the social media.
BACKGROUND: Stigma and discriminatory attitudes (SDAs) have a negative impact on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention, testing, and treatment as well as on family and social networks. There is a lack of understanding about HIV-related SDAs among people living outside large cities. This study is aimed to determine the level of HIV-related SDAs among a semi-urban population in Malaysia and to compare the SDA results among people with different sociodemographic characteristics.
METHODS: A sample of 106 respondents was generated by convenience sampling during the screening campaign in Alor Gajah, Malaysia. Data collection was carried out based on a pre-tested questionnaire via face-to-face interviews.
RESULTS: More than half of the respondents (62.3%) thought that an HIV-positive teacher should not be allowed to continue teaching at school; 81.1% were unsure or were unwilling to care for their family member with AIDS at home; 81.2% thought children with HIV/AIDS should not continue to be raised in families; and 77.3% thought they would not reveal if a family member had HIV/AIDS.
CONCLUSION: Priority should be given to evidence-based interventions to reduce HIV-related SDAs. This study did not reveal any significant relationship between sociodemographic profiles and HIV-related SDAs. Therefore, further research with a larger sample size is needed to investigate the underlying causes of HIV-related SDAs.
Multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is known to be a problematic bacterium for being a major cause of opportunistic and nosocomial infections. In this study, reduced graphene oxide decorated with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs/rGO) was utilized as a new sensing material for a fast and direct electrochemical detection of pyocyanin as a biomarker of P. aeruginosa infections. Under optimal condition, the developed electrochemical pyocyanin sensor exhibited a good linear range for the determination of pyocyanin in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), human saliva and urine at a clinically relevant concentration range of 1-100 μM, achieving a detection limit of 0.27 μM, 1.34 μM, and 2.3 μM, respectively. Our developed sensor demonstrated good selectivity towards pyocyanin in the presence of interfering molecule such as ascorbic acid, uric acid, NADH, glucose, and acetylsalicylic acid, which are commonly found in human fluids. Furthermore, the developed sensor was able to discriminate the signal with and without the presence of pyocyanin directly in P. aeruginosa culture. This proposed technique demonstrates its potential application in monitoring the presence of P. aeruginosa infection in patients.