Search

IntroductionTuberculosis is a preventable disease but still remains a public health concern.The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that nearly ONE QUARTER OF THE WORLD population are at risk of progression to tuberculosis disease.This study aims to describe Malaysia’s burden of tuberculosis for the year 2015 in terms of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Materials and MethodsThe calculation of burden of disease in terms of DALY was done using the methodology used in the Global Burden of Disease Study. The DALYs for tuberculosis were calculated by summing the Years of Life Lost (YLL) with the Years Lived with Disability (YLD). Results [Refer to Poster]. DiscussionMalaysia’s burden of tuberculosis accounted for 0.9% of the overall DALYs in 2015, which is much lower compared to those observed in other countries such as Thailand (1.4% of overall DALYs in 2009) and Brazil (2% of overall DALYs in 2010). Timely detection and prompt treatment should be emphasized to prevent early deaths and subsequently reduce the high tuberculosis mortality burden. Reducing the tuberculosis burden among males could be done most efficiently by improving access for tuberculosis care for males, providing counseling sessions as well as lost of wages compensation5. Mass media campaigns on tuberculosis awareness programs, targeting age-specific groups could help reach those within the high tuberculosis burden categories. ConclusionThe reduction of tuberculosis morbidity and mortality among malescan potentially reduce a large number of tuberculosis burden in Malaysia. Stronger approaches towards lowering the number of non-communicable diseases could help lessen Malaysian elderly’s risk of tuberculosis progression and deaths. &nbsp

IntroductionIn December 2019, an epidemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) began in China and the number of countries infected by the virus has continued to rise. This phenomenon has led WHO to declare Covid-19 as pandemic on March 11, 2020, and has urged all affected countries to take urgent and aggressive action to control this pandemic. Most of the countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic were recommended to adopt the containment and mitigation measures in order to control the disease from spreading. Briefly, the containment measures aimed at preventing the disease from taking hold, encompassing early detection, isolation, and care of people already infected, with careful tracing and screening of their contacts. While, mitigation measures aimed at reducing the impact and its incidence, as well as disruptions to economic, political, and social systems, encompassing social distancing strategies such as the cancellation of conferences and other large gatherings, reducing non-essential use of public transport, and closure of schools. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to determine the control methods used in containment and mitigation of the Covid-19 virus from the affected countries and to ascertain what are the best methods in Covid-19 transmission control. MethodologyIn our study, a scoping review approach in searching, screening, reviewing and data extraction was applied based on framework by Arksey and O’Malley. A comprehensive search strategy was performed, which included published scientific journals, unpublished work, grey literature using the MESH terms of “Novel coronavirus,” “Novel coronavirus 2019”, “2019 nCoV”, “Covid-19”, “Wuhan coronavirus”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “Containment”, “Mitigation” and “Control”. Two reviewers independently screened all references from the articles search and then reached consensus on which met the eligibility criteria. Two reviewers independently screened all references from the articles search and then reached consensus on which met the eligibility criteria. Non-English language articles were excluded as the translation was not practical. Data from the articles were extracted and summarized on a standardized form with the data reviewed by both authors. ResultsA total of 996 sources of evidence identified from the literature search and grey literature hand search were included in the review, representing the types of containment and mitigation from four regions; i. Western Pacific and South East Asia, ii. European, iii. Eastern Mediterranean, and iv. The Americas. After completion of the initial screening, 922 articles were excluded for the following reasons: the article did not meet the inclusion criteria (N = 862), the article was a duplicate (N = 60). The remaining 72 articles were screened at the full-text level. After full review for relevancy, 41 articles were excluded and a total of 31 articles were selected for scoping review (Figure 1;).After more than one month of the containment and mitigation control measures taken, most of the countries managed to reduce the Covid-19 cases from spreading in the communities [45]. However, the two most successful countries that managed to control this pandemic were Hong Kong and South Korea. While, the United States of America (USA) and Brazil are the countries yet unable to significantly reduce the Covid-19 cases (Table 1). ConclusionThis review revealed all countries affected by the Covid-19 had implemented multiple containment and mitigation measures to reduce the impact of the disease. Thus, making it difficult to measure the effectiveness of each individual method. A combination of multiple control measures is necessary, since this could increase the success in reducing the transmission of the Covid-19 disease. In addition, the aggressiveness of government efforts and the compliance among the population are the main factors for the effectiveness of the containment and mitigation measures implemented. Lastly, the efforts should be directed at the creation of standard guidelines to improve the containment and mitigation efforts, considering the characteristics of the virus and community acceptance.