An outbreak of pneumonia occurred among 1,491 recruits undergoing training at the Army Recruit Training Center, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembihxn, between july to August 2000. They had reported for training 2 weeks before and were placed in new modern concrete 4 floors buiMing with well ventilated dorm. A total of 70 recruits were ajjfected and one died. The attack rate was 4.7% and the case fatality rate was 1.4%. The outbreak ajfected recruits from all the jive companies; J (21/299,
30.0%) , G (19/298, 27.1 %), I (14/298, 20.0%), H (13/298, 18.6%) and F (3/298, 4.3%) . The main presenting symptoms were fever (68/70, 97.1%), cough (62/70, 88.6%), and chest pain (35/70, 50 .0%) . This was a common site outbreak with the mode of spread from person to person through infected droplet. The outbreak has three peaks, which was at lst, 4th and 6th week respectively and lasted for eight weeks. The organisms isobted through blood culture were Streptococcal pneumoniae and Klebsiella pneumoniae. All the cases were managed and treated as in-patients at four dijjferent hospitals depending on the severity of the illness. The main control activities carried out were separation of ill recruits from the healthy, reducing the number of recruits in the dormitories and encourage recruits to drink a lot of water while in training.
The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of HI V iryfection, risk factors and to measure the knowledge on AIDS among fishermen in Terengganu. In this survey fishermen registered with the Malaysian Fishery Development Board in Terengganu were studied. There were 600 eligible fishermen based on a list provided by the Malaysian Fishery Development Board (MFDB). Study sites were at 6 loading centres where health personnel awaited returning fishermen between 4. 00pm —7. 00 pm during a period of one month, A total of 542 registeredfshermen were studied and this corresponded to a response rate of 90.3 %. The majority of the fishermen were Malays (98.6%}, Nine fishermen were tested positive to HIV antibody and this corresponds to a
g prevalence of I. 7%. Prevalence of HIV is higher among those with a positive history of drug use, single marital status and also among the unskilled workers who represented the socio-economically poorer group of fishermen. Almost 89% of respondents have heard about HIV/AIDS and among these, 93% received information through TV and radio. The mean knowledge score was significantly higher among fishermen admitting to drug taking, sex with prostitutes, and those who have had at least a secondary school education. The Prevalence of HIV infection among fishermen is higher than in the general population. Risk characterisation of HI V injection was statistically signyicant onlv among fishermen who gave positive history of drug used. Findings also suggest that poorer fishermen based on multiple indicators to socioeconomic status had a higher risk of being HIV positive as well as being less knowledgeable about AIDS, Health promotion strategies should focus on the use of TV and radio as an interactive medium to reach out to risk groups among fishermen as its popularity has been determined by this study.
Childhood obesity is an established problem in many countries and emerging in others. Epidemiological data on obesity in children is essential in order to plan public health policy and services. A study was conducted to determine the prevalence of obesity in schoolchildren in the fifth grade of elementary school (10-12 years old) in the district of Kuala Selangor. Ten schools of which five are in urban and five in rural areas were selected consisting of 699 eleven year old schoolchildren from the three major ethnic groups. Using international cut-off points for obesity, we report an overall prevalence of obesity of 7.2%. Prevalence of obesity in urban children is 7.2% whereas in rural children it is 7.0 %. Analysed by gender, there were 8.9% obese boys and 5.3% obese girls. Among the 3 major ethnic groups, the Malays had the highest prevalence of obesity at 9.3% followed by the Chinese with 6.6% while among Indians 3.0%. The data obtained from this study suggests that obesity in Kuala Selangor children is a cause for concern in urban and rural areas.