Academic literature on the topic 'Skin Diseases Malaysia'

Background: Dermatophytosis is one of the most common skin diseases that affects cats and dogs. Geographic factors play an important role in determining prevalence, showing high rates of prevalence in warm and humid environments. Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the macroscopic and microscopic identification of different types of dermatophytes present on stray dogs. Methods: The design of this study was laboratory-based research. Each sample was collected from an infection site (nail, hair, or skin) that was identified by conducting a physical examination of a stray dog that was infected with fungi. The skin scraping, nail clipping, and fur cutting samples were collected from infected dogs and then cultured on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA). The cultures were incubated at 26°C for five weeks. The isolates of fungi were then examined macroscopically and microscopically. The Lactophenol Cotton Blue (LPCB) staining technique was used for fungi morphology identification. Results: Overall, the most common type of dermatophytes that affected the dogs were Trichophyton spp. (64.70%), Aspergillus spp. (10.10%), Microsporum spp. (7.20%), and Curvularia spp. (5.60%). Conclusion: This study revealed the most common dermatophyte infections found on stray dogs in Selangor, Malaysia. This study can assist investigators in understanding the prevalence of the dermatophyte burden in stray dogs and help prevent further complication, such as the spread of illness, especially zoonotic infection.

Occupational diseases are one of the major health problems related to workplace hazards. However, the epidemiological data for this problem is scarce especially among Small and Medium Industry (SMI) workers. These workers are vulnerable to occupational health problem due to lack of knowledge and implementation of health and safety in the workplace. In Malaysia, most of the SMI workers have limited coverage for basic occupational health services which may worsen their health. Thus, this article aims to provide a review on the burden of occupational health problems among them. The electronic and library searches were used to extract the information from both published and unpublished articles that were not limited to any year of publication until 2017. One hundred and ninety-six published articles and 198 unpublished articles were retrieved from the database. Only 19 published articles and 25 unpublished articles met the eligibility criteria. Prevalence data of occupational diseases/poisoning, including overall and body specific (musculoskeletal disorders) was extracted in raw data from the eligible studies. Prevalent statistics on occupational musculoskeletal diseases (1.3% - 97.6%), noise-induced hearing loss (29.4% - 73.3%), occupational skin diseases (10.5% - 84.3%), respiratory (1.9% - 92.2%) and occupational poisoning (14.9% - 17.7%) among the working population is different within published papers compared to unpublished ones. In Malaysia, there are no specific statistic that give a true picture of the burden of occupational diseases in the SMI. However, this review concludes that musculoskeletal diseases are significant occupational problems among SMI workers.

Objectives:To determine the occupational risk of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers (HCWs) and to examine the utility of tuberculin skin testing in a developing country with a high prevalence of bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccination.Design:Tuberculin skin test (TST) survey.Setting:A tertiary-care referral center and a teaching hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Participants:HCWs from medical, surgical, and orthopedic wards.Intervention:Tuberculin purified protein derivative RT-23 (State Serum Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark) was used for the TST (Mantoux method).Results:One hundred thirty-seven (52.1%) and 69 (26.2%) of the HCWs tested had indurations of 10 mm or greater and 15 mm or greater, respectively. Medical ward HCWs were at significantly higher risk of a positive TST reaction than were surgical or orthopedic ward HCWs (odds ratio, 2.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.33 to 3.57; P = .002 for TST positivity at 10 mm or greater) (odds ratio, 2.61; 95% confidence interval, 1.44 to 4.70; P = .002 for TST positivity at 15 mm or greater). A previous TST was a significant risk factor for a positive TST reaction at either 10 mm or greater or 15 mm or greater, but a duration of employment of more than 1 year and being a nurse were only significantly associated with a positive TST reaction at a cut-off point of 15 mm or greater.Conclusions:HCWs at the University of Malaya Medical Centre had an increased risk for M. tuberculosis infection that was significantly associated with the level of occupational tuberculosis exposure. A TST cut-off point of 15 mm or greater may correlate better with M. tuberculosis infection than a cut-off point of 10 mm or greater in settings with a high prevalence of bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccination (Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2002;23:584-590).

Vitamin D is essential for maintaining serum calcium levels, ensuring sufficient bone mineralization, immunomodulatory properties, and a protective effect on the cardiovascular system, renal disease, cancer, as well as in pregnancy. Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent worldwide, and it is not related to a country’s development index. However, the data on vitamin D deficiencies are primarily taken from out-of-date, small-scale studies on target age groups or specific diseases, rather than from large-scale, population-based surveys. In Malaysia, for the past 16 years, studies were conducted involving adult men and women, pregnant women, postmenopausal women, adolescent, and children especially with specific diseases such as spina bifida, epilepsy, chronic liver disease, and atopic dermatitis. Only a few large surveys were conducted involving children and adolescents. Across the specific target population studied, vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were seen particularly among females, Indians, and those of Malay ethnicity. This is related to widely known causes of vitamin D deficiency such as skin type (melanin) and sun avoidant lifestyles that include covering clothes, largely practiced by Malay Muslims in Malaysia. Other related causes or the high-risk groups are breastfed infants, the elderly, the obese, those on medications, and those characterized by fat malabsorption and geophysical factors. Vitamin D deficiency can be managed with pharmacological or non-pharmacological approaches, depending on the severity. The objective is to raise serum vitamin D to a normal level, hence, relieving the symptoms and reducing the adverse health outcomes. Despite no clear guidelines in treating vitamin D deficiency in Malaysia, this condition can be prevented with taking adequate vitamin D in food resources, sun exposure, or supplementation. Special attention should be given to high-risk groups including infants, obese patients, and the elderly.

Fungi are vital pathogens related to airway and deferent diseases. Exposure to fungi will have adverse effects on human health through severe immune responses. Allergic diseases like allergic rhinitis, asthma, airborne dermatitis, or allergic conjunctivitis. These diseases may well be aggravated by fungi allergens from the natural atmosphere or from the indoor environment in enclosed areas, workplaces and houses. Fungi allergy prevalence for the Malaysian population has yet to be reported. Therefore, information on allergens of fungi species in Sultan Idris Education University (UPSI), Sultan Azlan Shah Campus will be used to profile the nation prevalence on fungi allergy. Hence, the present study is conducted at UPSI to identify the ten most common airborne fungal species as a preliminary work prior to sensitization study on common fungal allergens. Dust was collected from 54 rooms situated within the 3 blocks at UPSI Sultan Azlan Shah Campus buildings using a vacuum cleaner. The sieved dust was cultured using PDA media and incubated at room temperature to propagate pure culture and sent to the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute for identification using PCR. In this study the 10 most common species were identified as, Penicillium simplicissimum, Aspergillus aculeatus, Rhodosporidiobolus ruineniae, Ceriporia lacerate, Aspergillus caliodustus, Syncephalastrum sp., Aspergillus sp., Aspergillus fumigatus, Fusarium sp., and Penicillium canescens. Fungi profile exhibited in this study will lead to a further study on fungi allergy with skin prick test and immunoblotting to be carried out.

BackgroundSystemic Lupus erythematous (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. Asian patients including Malaysia tend to have more severe disease with renal involvement. The differences could be due to the interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Thus, identifying the genetic associations from diverse populations provides a better understanding on the genetic architecture of this heterogeneous disease.ObjectivesThe primary objective of this study was to validate the previously described SLE susceptibility gene loci among other population in the multi-ethnic Malaysian SLE patients. The secondary objective was to determine the association between the gene loci with organ-specific involvement across different Malaysian ethnicities.MethodsThis was a case-control study involving the recruitment of SLE patients who attended the outpatient clinic in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) from July 2019 until March 2021. Their medical records were reviewed to record the socio-demographic characteristics and SLE clinical manifestations. The SLE susceptible gene loci from the NHGRI-EBI Catalog of human genome-wide association studies were reviewed. The gene loci with p values less than 5x10-8 tested in a total sample size of at least 1000 individuals were included in the genotyping study in our SLE patients. Healthy controls with frequency matching by gender and ethnicity-matched were also recruited in this study. Their peripheral blood samples were genotyped using the Agena MassARRAY system (Agena Bioscience). The genotype frequencies of susceptibility loci in all patients and controls were tested for Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Associations between phenotype and genotype were performed by logistic regression analysis.ResultsA total of 202 SLE patients and 206 healthy controls were recruited. The SLE cohort consisted of predominant Malay ethnicity (n=126,62.6%) followed by Malaysian Chinese (n=69, 34.2%) and Indian (n=7, 3.5%). After quality control and Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium test, a total of 27 candidate SNPs were genotyped in our study population. Meta-analysis revealed 5 gene loci at SNP rs4544377 (RNU6-546P), rs4917014 (IKZF1), rs1878186 (SLC12A1), rs4728142 (IRF5) and rs5029937 (TNFAIP3) were associated with SLE in Malaysian population (all p value <0.05). In Malay group, rs4544377 (RNU6-546P) and rs4728142 (IRF5) were found to be associated with SLE with adjusted OR 0.42 (95% CI: 0.24-0.74), p=0.002 and OR 3.08 (95% CI: 1.71-5.54), p=0.000169, respectively. In Malaysian Chinese group, rs4917014 (IKZF1) was found to be associated with SLE with OR 0.45 (95% CI: 0.23-0.86), p=0.016. Among Malay patients, rs1878186 (SLC12A1) was found to be associated with skin rash with OR 2.01 (95% CI: 1.20-3.35), p=0.008 while rs4544377 (RNU6-546P) and rs4917014 (IKZF1) were associated with lupus nephritis, with OR 0.48 (95% CI: 0.24-0.96), p=0.039 and OR 3.29 (95% CI: 1.18-9.20), p=0.023. In Malaysian Chinese patients, rs4544377 (RNU6-546P) was associated with muco-cutaneous manifestation with OR 2.82 (95% CI: 1.15-6.92), p=0.023 while rs4728142 (IRF5) was associated with haematological manifestation with OR 5.61 (95% CI: 1.69-18.60), p=0.005.ConclusionOur exploratory study demonstrates the associations of the established SLE genes in Malaysian SLE populations. There are variations in the SLE susceptible gene loci with clinical manifestations of SLE between Malay and Malaysian Chinese populations.References[1]J. E. Molineros, K. H. Chua, C. Sun, L. H. Lian, P. Motghare, X. Kim-Howard, et al. Evaluation of SLE Susceptibility Genes in Malaysians. Autoimmune Diseases 2014 Vol. 2014 Pages 305436AcknowledgementsThis study received funding from the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia (FRGS/1/2018/SKK02/UKM/03/1)Disclosure of InterestsNone declared.

Nutrition is a critical part of human health and development. However, overweight and obesity prevalence are rising worldwide, with associated diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other diet-related conditions. Body mass index (BMI) is an index of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity in adults. The skin-fold measurement method is the most widely used body fat composition testing method for assessing body fat percentage. The objective of the study was to measure the body weight and body fat of medical students of Sabah, Malaysia by using different types of nutritional assessment methods. A cross-sectional study among the selected Year 2 medical students of School of Medicine, University Malaysia Sabah was conducted using different types of nutritional assessment. The average BMI and mean body fat percentage measured by body fat analyzer of the re-spondents were 21.95±0.59 kg/m2, and 16.98±1.37% respectively. The mean body fat percentages calculated by different skinfold thickness were: abdominal 24.13±1.11%, supra-iliac 20.35±1.35%, subscapular 21.83±1.01%, and alternative three-site 19.46±1.02%. In reliability testing, results are variable between male and female – internal consistency of the alternative three-sites skinfold calculation for body fat percentage showed male (excellent) and female (acceptable), and skinfold reading for body fat percentage for triceps, abdomen, sub-scapular and supra-iliac showed male (good) and female (poor to acceptable). Our findings could be used in obesity awareness promotion among Malaysian youth. However, further investigation about the determinants of obesity and body fat, including age, sex, race, nutrition, and changes over time, is needed.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v4i1.21838 South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.4(1) 2014: 35-40

Eryngium foetidum L. (Family Apiaceae) is a biennial herb, and it is used as a culinary herb and spice across the different countries of the world, including Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, etc. due to its high aroma quality. Also, it is used to treat several ailments, such as respiratory diseases, gastrointestinal ailments, and skin diseases among different indigenous populations for its medicinal properties. Based on ethnomedical evidence, many studies have been conducted to identify the phytoconstituents, underlying mechanisms, and related pharmacological effects of different parts of this plant. This study reviewed the current state of findings related to the Pharmacological activities of E. foetidum. Based on this review, this plant is widely used for ethnomedical and culinary purposes. Pharmacological screening of the plant revealed that it had different activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anthelminthic, anticonvulsant, anticancer, antidiabetic, antimalarial, larvicidal, and hepatoprotective activities. This review further promised that potential new chemical entities could be elicited from the phytoconstituents of E. foetidum.