A 28-year-old man presented with a chief complaint of rashes all over his body. He had a history of a trip to Langkawi Island, a famous island resort off the west coast of Malaysia, over the Chinese New Year’s weekend. According to him, he had a lot of fun with a group of friends at the sunny beach and the beautiful sea. There were no untoward incidents and they were perfectly well when they returned home after a 2-day trip. On the evening of the second day after his return, he noticed rashes appearing over his body, notably on shoulders and trunk. These rashes were little painful in nature.
The purpose of the study is as a preliminary outline of the effectiveness of initiating high-risk individuals into the Health Farm concept in the primary prevention of coronary artery disease (CAD). Thirty-five (35) Army personnel, all male, with risk-factors for CAD were brought together on a Health Farm concept to go through a predesigned ten-day Farm programme comprising CAD risk-assessment, comprehensive medical examination, relevant blood chemistry analysis, physical fitness evaluation, individualised weekly exercise routine, physical fitness workouts, individualised diet, lectures, group discussion and individual counselling. Description of the participants (as measurements of various relevant parameters) are made at the start and as participant-achievement. The results show general participant-compliance to the programme which was reflected by significant changes in weight (p < 0.005), percentile VO2Max (p < 0.005), percentile push-ups (p < 0.005) and girth-difference (p < 0.005). The study showed that the Health Farm concept is effective in initiating high-risk individuals into lifestyles conducive to the primary prevention of CAD. Sustained results towards primary prevention of CAD can be expected with compliance to a long-term follow-up that has been identified and to which participants have been made aware of. Other previous intervention studies are briefly discussed.
Malaysia, experienced two epidemic waves of HPAI; its fi rst outbreak of HP H5N1 in August 2004 that occurred in the state of Kelantan and the second and subsequent outbreaks in February–March 2006 in three states on the west coast of Malaysia namely Wilayah Persekutuan
Kuala Lumpur, Perak and Penang. Five outbreaks occurred in village chickens and one in a multi-species enclosure of birds in a bird park resort facility. Molecular epidemiological studies by genomic sequencing and phylogenetic analyses of the viruses isolated showed that the
virus isolated from WP Kuala Lumpur is of the V-genotype and it originated from Hunan China, two viruses were found to be similar to the Fujian/Hunan strains and other viruses were similar to the Vietnam/ Thailand strains.
Osteosarcoma occurring in the humerus is often confined to the proximal part, in which case, reconstruction after excision is less daunting. When the tumour spreads down the medullary cavity distally, a total humeral replacement is often required. This is costly and beyond the means of the average patient in a developing country. An amputation is often the procedure of first resort. We report a 13-year-old boy with osteosarcoma originating from the left proximal humerus, with involvement of the marrow reaching down to the distal diaphyseal-metaphyseal junction, leaving only 6 cm of the distal humerus intact after wide resection. Reconstruction of the defect was done with a composite cement-autoclaved autograft fixed to the remaining humerus with a plate. At 40 months of follow-up, the patient is well with normal function of the elbow, wrist and hand. Salvaging the limb despite near total involvement of the humerus by high grade osteosarcoma is possible using material available in the average orthopaedic operating room.