Author Archives: superadmin-pantaipremier

Tuberculosis (TB) is categorized as one of the top infectious killers worldwide, despite being a preventable and curable disease, due to the devastating health, social and economic impact it poses.^{1, 2}

Each year, 10 million people are getting infected with TB, with 1.5 million deaths recorded in 2018.^{1, 2} Around 57% of which infected are men, 32% are women and 11% are children who are 15 years old and below. The SouthEast Asia region has been reported to have the highest distribution of TB cases.³

TB is also the leading cause of death in people with HIV, with 251,000 deaths reported and one of the main contributors to antimicrobial resistance with 484,000 individuals who fell ill with drug-resistant TB in 2018.^{1, 2}

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a bacteria that is responsible for TB infection by affecting the lungs.^{2, 4} TB is spread through airborne transmission when a person with the disease coughs, sneezes or spits and another individual needs to only inhale a few germs from the infected droplets to become infected.⁴

Most TB cases are reported to progress from latent TB infection (LTBI) rather than local transmission, especially in those whose immune systems are weakened. Hence, the transmission of the infectious TB can be prevented through prompt case finding and treatment of LTBI as a crucial strategy to achieve the elimination of TB.^{4, 5, 6}

Reference:

1. World Tuberculosis Day 2020. (n.d.). World Health Organization. Retrieved July 22, 2020, from https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-tb-day/world-tb-day-2020
2. Tuberculosis. (n.d.). World Health Organization. Retrieved July 22, 2020, from https://www.who.int/health-topics/tuberculosis#tab=tab_1
3. World Health Organization. (2019). TB Report (1.1) [Mobile App]. Play Store. https://apps.apple.com/my/app/tb-report/id1483112411
4. Latent TB Infection and TB Disease. (2016). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/basics/tbinfectiondisease.htm
5. Lönnroth, K., Migliori, G. B., Abubakar, I., D’Ambrosio, L., De Vries, G., Diel, R., … & Ochoa, E. R. G. (2015). Towards tuberculosis elimination: an action framework for low-incidence countries. European Respiratory Journal, 45(4), 928-952.
6. Dobler, C. C., Martin, A., & Marks, G. B. (2015). Benefit of treatment of latent tuberculosis infection in individual patients. European Respiratory Journal, 46(5), 1397-1406.

Hepatitis is a group of infectious diseases that affects 325 million people worldwide. Hepatitis C alone has been estimated to infect around 71 million people globally with either acute or chronic infection. Most individuals that have chronic infection will develop cirrhosis or liver cancer.^{2, 3, 5, 6} In 2016, WHO estimated that approximately 399,000 people have died from hepatitis C, mostly from cirrhosis and primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma).¹

What is Hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C infection occurs due to the inflammation of the liver caused by hepatitis C virus.³

What are the symptoms of Hepatitis C?

Individuals infected with hepatitis C are usually unaware that they are infected as it occurs with minimal to no clinical symptoms and are non-specific in most cases.⁷

When symptoms are present, they include extreme fatigue, jaundice, vomiting, dark urine, pale-coloured stool, loss of appetite and abdominal pain.¹

What causes Hepatitis C?

Hepatitis holds a great concern due to the burden of death it causes and its potential of causing an outbreak and epidemic spread.

Hepatitis C is mainly transmitted through parenteral contact with contaminated blood such as from infected mother to child at birth, through sharing medical equipment (i.e. needle and syringe) and personal items (i.e. razor and toothbrush) and less frequently through unprotected blood-to-blood sexual contact with an infected person.^{1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8}

Who gets Hepatitis C?

Individuals at risk of hepatitis C are those in the healthcare profession, having multiple sexual partners and intravenous drug abusers.^{1, 8}

Most cases are due to unknown origin which means an individual does not need to be included in a high-risk group in order to be infected with a hepatitis virus.

How is Hepatitis C diagnosed?

Since hepatitis C infection is usually asymptomatic, very few individuals are diagnosed and may have developed chronic hepatitis C infection which can lead to serious health problems including secondary to serious liver damage. Hence, it is important for an individual to do early screening to prevent the advancement of the disease.^{1, 3}

Hepatitis C infection is diagnosed by testing for anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies with a serological test which identifies individuals that have been infected with the virus.

After an individual has been diagnosed with hepatitis C virus infection, an assessment of the degree of liver damage (fibrosis or cirrhosis) will be made through liver biopsy.¹

The degree of liver damage is done to be used as a guide for making decisions for the management and treatment of the disease.¹

In conclusion, hepatitis C infection is preventable, treatable and curable. Most individuals affected either lack prevention, testing or treatment.¹ Hence, early screening and detection is an important step to prevent the progression to chronic infection (cirrhosis or liver cancer) and to reduce liver-related morbidity and mortality.⁶

Source:

1. Hepatitis C. (2017, July 9). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-c
2. World Hepatitis Day 2019. (n.d.-a). World Health Organization. Retrieved July 24, 2020, from https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hepatitis-day/2019
3. What is Viral Hepatitis? (n.d.). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved July 24, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/abc/index.htm
4. World Hepatitis Day — July 28th. (n.d.). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved July 24, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/awareness/worldhepday.htm
5. (İskender, G., Mert, D., Çeken, S., Bahçecitapar, M., Yenigün, A., & Ertek, M. (2020). Hepatitis C screening and referral for further investigation and treatment in a tertiary care hospital. The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, 14(06), 642-646.
6. Guss, D., Sherigar, J., Rosen, P., & Mohanty, S. R. (2018). Diagnosis and management of hepatitis C infection in primary care settings. Journal of general internal medicine, 33(4), 551-557.
7. Mohd Suan, M. A., Said, S. M., Lim, P. Y., Azman, A. Z. F., & Abu Hassan, M. R. (2019). Risk factors for hepatitis C infection among adult patients in Kedah state, Malaysia: A case–control study. PloS one, 14(10), e0224459.
8. Ghany, M. G., Strader, D. B., Thomas, D. L., & Seeff, L. B. (2009). Diagnosis, management, and treatment of hepatitis C: an update. Hepatology, 49(4), 1335-1374.

NCD (Non Communicable Disease)

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic diseases, tend to be of long duration and are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behaviours factors.

Risk Factors

• Smoking
• physical inactivity
• unhealthy diet
• harmful use of alcohol
• overweight/obesity

Who is at Risk?

People of all age groups, regions and countries are affected by NCDs. These conditions are often associated with older age groups, but evidence shows that 15 million of all deaths attributed to NCDs occur between the ages of 30 and 69 years.

NCD Statistics

• Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to 71% of all deaths globally.
• Cardiovascular diseases account for most NCD deaths, or 17.9 million people annually.
• According to 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS), about 2/3 of Malaysians have at least 1 of 3 NCDs.

Did you know?

! People with pre-existing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the COVID-19 virus.

! Risk of becoming severely ill increases with age

Tests offered for NCDs by Pantai Premier Pathology

NCD3 Profile, stands for Non-Communicable Disease (Diabetes, High Cholesterol & CV diseases) includes 4 main screenings:

Reference: 

1) World Health Organization. (2018, June 1). A report on noncommunicable diseases. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases

2) Institute for Public Health (IPH) 2015. National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015 (NHMS 2015). Vol. II: Non-Communicable Diseases, Risk Factors & Other Health Problems; 2015.

3) World Health Organization. (2020). COVID-19 and NCDs. Information Note. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019