Welcome 2015 !



We welcome 2015 as 2014 will exit in 2 days' time.

It had been a tumultuous year for Malaysia especially towards the last quarter of 2014 with global commercial trade in uncertainty, falling crude oil price and, just a day ago, the disappearance of another airplane over the Indonesian airspace, which totalled to 3 the number of great plane disasters recorded in the year!

Let's pray that the New Year, 2015 will be filled with love, joy, hope and peace. May the World be a better place to live in.

May ALL MEN realise that this is the ONLY World that we have as we have no other to go to.

Mess up or destroy this World, we will all be in trouble!

May ALL MEN wake up from their selfish dreams, slumbers and activities to learn to love one another and the World that sustains us all!

/29-12-2014

Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed are solely those of the Author and should be used with discretion. The Author shall not be held liable for any acts or omissions arising from the use of the information. The user will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising hereof.

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Private hospitals will see an increase fee of about 5%



Malaysians will have to pay at least 5% more for private healthcare once the Goods and Services Tax kicks off  on 1 April 2015, according to an estimate by the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM).

APHM president Datuk Dr Jacob Thomas warned that the costs would increase even though the Government announced that healthcare services were exempted from the GST.

He said this was due to certain details on the implementation of the 6% GST, including deeming the work of doctors operating as independent consultants as “outsourced service” that can be taxed.

“About 99% of doctors in private hospitals are not employees, but operate as independent contractors,” said Dr Jacob.

“This means that the burden of the GST will be borne by the rakyat for the services of such healthcare professionals,” he said.

Dr Jacob said the hospital operating costs were also expected to increase from other outsourced services, which are taxable like security, laundry and housekeeping.

“To say that healthcare costs will not go up is not true. The costs will definitely increase,” he warned.
“It is not viable for private hospitals to absorb the extra charges.”

Dr Jacob said the 120-member APHM understood the Government’s good intentions of exempting healthcare from the GST.

“But as it is implemented, there is going to be an increase in costs,” he said. “I disagree with the Health Minister who said that the increase will only be about 1%.”

Dr Jacob urged the Government to regard healthcare services as an “exempt supply” in the true sense of the word and not have hidden costs that could implicate the private healthcare sector.

“If it insists on imposing the tax on us, our plea to the Government is to explain to the people about this,” he added.

“The increase in private healthcare costs may also see more patients switching to public hospitals, which may further clog up the sector.

“About 30% of hospital beds in Malaysia are in the private sector and our country’s healthcare boasts of being ranked the third best in the world because of its excellent and affordable care,” he said.

There are 220 private hospitals in the country.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam was reported to have said that medical costs might increase by between 1% and 2% when the GST is imposed.

/theSTAR 16-12-2014
 
 
Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed are solely those of the Author and should be used with discretion. The Author shall not be held liable for any acts or omissions arising from the use of the information. The user will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising hereof.

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Health Ministry: Database for Rare Diseases



The Malaysian Health Ministry is exploring various strategies and is working with stakeholders to set up a database for reporting rare diseases.

Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah acknowledged that there was no official or specific registry now. “Currently,information is captured by the respective discipline’s database. For example, Marfan’s syndrome patients who have predominantly heart and eye problems are placed in the cardiac or eye registry,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said it was difficult to estimate how many patients died from rare diseases because the official cause of death was usually a complication of the disease.

He said rare diseases were usually chronic, debilitating and often life-threatening.

The Health Ministry was looking into the development of a nationally coordinated plan to tackle rare diseases.

“This may outline a cohesive clinical, public, health and disability service approach to rare diseases, addressing prevention, timely diagnosis, early intervention, treatment and rehabilitation,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said there was also a strong need for a Rare Disease and Orphan Drug Act in Malaysia.

Such a law, he said, would cover the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of rare diseases, the acquisition and manufacturing of orphan drugs (a pharmaceutical agent developed specifically to treat a rare medical condition), R&D and subsidies for specific drugs and nutrients.

Countries such as Japan, South Korea, the United States and European nations cover rare diseases under national health insurance, allowing co-payment to be waived.
 .
According to the Global Genes Project, about 350 million people are affected by a rare disease.
It is believed that collectively the rare disease community is larger than the AIDS and cancer communities combined.
/theSTAR 12-12-2014


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Rare Diseases



Congenital abnormalities – the majority of which are rare diseases – are the main cause of babies and children under five years of age in Malaysia dying.

Malaysia lacks a central registry for these diseases to increase awareness and help with formulating strategies.

Annually, around 16,500 of Malay­sia’s 550,000 babies are afflicted with congenital abnormalities and about one third may succumb to these illnesses before reaching their first birthday.

Those who do not die may have reduced quality of life due to physical or learning disabilities.

University Malaya Medical Centre consultant paediatrician and clinical geneticist Prof Dr Thong Meow Keong said the need for a registry was pressing because there was so little awareness of the diseases.

“With proper information, we can plan healthcare needs for them and their families and institute preventive and control strategies in line with WHO (World Health Organisation) recommendations to reduce infant mortality,” he said.

There are about 8,000 known rare diseases and the list is growing daily, according to him. He said rare disease is defined in Europe as a condition occurring in 1 in 2,000 general population but there is no official definition yet in Malaysia.

Some patient support groups, such as the Malaysian Rare Disorders Society, adopted the definition of any condition that affects 1 in 4,000 people or less, he said.

Of the 8,000 diseases, only about 200 have pharmaceutical treatment.

Prof Thong said that couples at risk of genetic diseases should seek counselling from clinical geneticists before going for genetic testing or starting a family.

“Malaysia needs more diagnostic services for genetic and metabolic diseases at affordable prices.
Due to lack of facilities and ex­­per­tise, genetic testing is exp­en­­­sive and samples for genetic testing often have to be sent overseas,” he said.

This was echoed by Malaysia Rare Disorders Society president Datuk Hatijah Ayob.

She said the lack of awareness resulted in a lot of difficulties faced by sufferers, including issues with insurance and Socso coverage. “Some rare diseases are not recognised by the Welfare Department. One case we heard of, the sufferer did not qualify for Socso. We need data to mark trends in these diseases,” she said.

“For example, if a child has Marfan’s Syndrome (a genetic disorder affecting the body’s connective tissue), parents may think the child is just tall and lanky. By the time they realise something is amiss, the child could have skeletal or visual issues,” she said.

/theSTAR 12-12-2014


Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed are solely those of the Author and should be used with discretion. The Author shall not be held liable for any acts or omissions arising from the use of the information. The user will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising hereof.

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Parkinson’s Disease centre in the works



Malaysia’s first centre for Parkinson’s Disease at Jalan Universiti in Petaling Jaya, which will also be the first in South-East Asia, will be operational by 2016.

Universiti Malaya vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin said the centre would be built at the cost of RM10mil.

“When completed, it will be a research centre for Parkinson’s Disease and a treatment centre for patients,” he said after the presentation of a RM4mil cheque by Cepatwawasan Group Bhd to cover the cost of the project.

/theSTAR 02-12-2014

Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed are solely those of the Author and should be used with discretion. The Author shall not be held liable for any acts or omissions arising from the use of the information. The user will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising hereof.

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RM 30mil set aside for research for the Disabled and Elderly



The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry is planning a RM30mil flagship scheme for research into the disabled and the elderly facilities.

The researchers have to work together with a university or the private sector or with an agency under the Ministry.

The Ministry had earlier launched the revised Malay­sian Standard (MS) MS1184:2014 Universal Design and Accessibility in Built Environment – Code of Practice (Second Revision), which is to encourage the building of disabled or elderly-friendly facilities.

The event was held in conjunction with International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Dr Abu Bakar said inventions funded by the ministry might be bought by the Government when they were completed as previously only 8.73% of all ministry-funded products researched from 2006 until Oct 31 were commercialised.

Dr Abu Bakar said the Government aimed to see 360 products commercialised by 2020, adding that 65 had been commercialised thus far.

/theSTAR 02-12-2014

Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed are solely those of the Author and should be used with discretion. The Author shall not be held liable for any acts or omissions arising from the use of the information. The user will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising hereof.

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Don: Push for dengue field tests



The Health Ministry should go ahead with actual field tests for a proposed vaccine for dengue as trials show that it can reduce hospitalisation by 67%, Asia-Pacific Dengue Vaccine and Vaccination Steering Committee chairman Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Lam Sai Kit said.

He said that actual field tests were important to see how the vaccine worked and how the community accepted it.

“Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam had said that the ministry was still undecided if they wanted to introduce the vaccine as it only gave an overall protection rate of 56%,” he said in a statement.

He added that the figure was based on clinical trials done on Asians by French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur.

“Instead of focusing on the overall protection rate, the ministry should also consider that the trial results showed there was a reduction of 67% for hospitalisation and prevention of severe dengue by 88.5%

“Similar tests were also done by the company on Latin Americans and there were no serious adverse events in both trials,” he said.

Dr Lam added that a study conducted by Universiti Malaya Medical Centre in collaboration with Brandeis University – a US private research university – in 2012 showed that the economic burden of dengue in Malaysia came to about RM360mil a year.

“Until September this year, we had a total of 74,335 cases with 143 deaths. Imagine how much the country could have saved if the vaccine was already being used.

“The World Health Organisation has set a target to reduce the risk of dengue mortality by 50% and morbidity by 25% by 2020, and the present vaccine fulfils the criteria,” he noted.

He added that instead of waiting, the ministry should push for the field tests and focus on patients aged between 25 and 30, as most local dengue deaths involved this age group.

It was reported on Nov 27 that the Health Ministry would carry out in-depth research on the dengue vaccine before distribution.

/theSTAR 02-12-2014

Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed are solely those of the Author and should be used with discretion. The Author shall not be held liable for any acts or omissions arising from the use of the information. The user will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising hereof.

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