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'Disconnect to reconnect'

Arumugam CT

J Paediatr Child Health, 2020 Oct;56(10):1638.
PMID: 33099823 DOI: 10.1111/jpc.15061
COVID 19 - To Strive Against the Strike

Arumugam CT

Disaster Med Public Health Prep, 2020 12;14(6):e21.
PMID: 33834958 DOI: 10.1017/dmp.2020.337
Screen-based media and young children: Review and recommendations

Arumugam CT, Said MA, Nik Farid ND

Malays Fam Physician, 2021 Jul 22;16(2):7-13.
PMID: 34386158 DOI: 10.51866/rv1143

Early childhood development is influenced by a child's environmental experiences. The qualities of surrounding in which a child lives, grows up and learns are key for attaining their milestones. Increased availability of screen-based media in families leads to excessive screen time among young children, resulting in high chances of displacing parent-child interaction which is fundamental in a thriving child's process of learning and development. Numerous publications have investigated the potential health impacts of early exposure and excessive usage of screen-based media among children, with literature suggesting links between excessive screen time and behavioural difficulties, developmental delay and increased risk of obesity, among other issues. Existing guidelines from international bodies call for limiting screen time to an hour per day for children aged two to five years old and urge that children below the age of two should not be exposed to any screen time. To spark awareness among parents and caregivers concerning the potential health impacts of screen-based media usage among young children, child media habits are recommended to be incorporated as part of toddlers' developmental assessment in health clinics. A guideline for mindful usage of screen-based media focusing on children below the age of five tailored to a Malaysian context ought to be developed based on current evidence from research, theory and practice. A collaborative effort between concerned agencies is essential to ensuring a developmentally stimulating environment in which young children may grow up.
Fulltext Implementation of a COVID-19 surveillance programme for healthcare workers in a teaching hospital in an upper-middle-income country

Wan KS, Tok PSK, Yoga Ratnam KK, Aziz N, Isahak M, Ahmad Zaki R, et al.

PLoS One, 2021;16(4):e0249394.
PMID: 33852588 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249394

INTRODUCTION: The reporting of Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) mortality among healthcare workers highlights their vulnerability in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Some low- and middle-income countries have highlighted the challenges with COVID-19 testing, such as inadequate capacity, untrained laboratory personnel, and inadequate funding. This article describes the components and implementation of a healthcare worker surveillance programme in a designated COVID-19 teaching hospital in Malaysia. In addition, the distribution and characteristics of healthcare workers placed under surveillance are described.
MATERIAL AND METHODS: A COVID-19 healthcare worker surveillance programme was implemented in University Malaya Medical Centre. The programme involved four teams: contact tracing, risk assessment, surveillance and outbreak investigation. Daily symptom surveillance was conducted over fourteen days for healthcare workers who were assessed to have low-, moderate- and high-risk of contracting COVID-19. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted for data collected over 24 weeks, from the 6th of March 2020 to the 20th of August 2020.
RESULTS: A total of 1,174 healthcare workers were placed under surveillance. The majority were females (71.6%), aged between 25 and 34 years old (64.7%), were nursing staff (46.9%) and had no comorbidities (88.8%). A total of 70.9% were categorised as low-risk, 25.7% were moderate-risk, and 3.4% were at high risk of contracting COVID-19. One-third (35.2%) were symptomatic, with the sore throat (23.6%), cough (19.8%) and fever (5.0%) being the most commonly reported symptoms. A total of 17 healthcare workers tested positive for COVID-19, with a prevalence of 0.3% among all the healthcare workers. Risk category and presence of symptoms were associated with a positive COVID-19 test (p<0.001). Fever (p<0.001), cough (p = 0.003), shortness of breath (p = 0.015) and sore throat (p = 0.002) were associated with case positivity.
CONCLUSION: COVID-19 symptom surveillance and risk-based assessment have merits to be included in a healthcare worker surveillance programme to safeguard the health of the workforce.