Bird flu in Kelantan
The bird flu is here in Malaysia. Specifically in Kelantan, near the Thai borders. It has been assumed that the source is from poultry and exotic birds being smuggled into Kelantan from the South Thai towns. I must congratulate the Veterinary Services Department for taking the proactive approach to prevent the spread of bird flu to other states and may cause a catastrophic economy. The authorities are trying their level best to actively looking for cases and cull the animals mostly in the backyard of villagers. It is a pity that even exotic and expensive peacocks were culled. This has created unhappiness to the owners but public health comes first. Hence public education is very important. They must be taught of the serious consequences in bringing in birds and poultry from the borders. They must be told to alert the authorities to report any strange diseases happening to their poultry and exotic birds as an early alarm indicator.

Just two things I would like to comment. Number one: In the local news, it was portrayed that the authorities has been successful in preventing smuggling of the animals. They showed the police stopping a lorry full of frozen processed chicken meat. This is not the mode of transmission of influenza. There will be no more flu viruses left in the meat after it has been processed. The implication is that it would conveyed wrong message to the public that they can get flu by eating chicken. Number two: The authorities should be also aware that the migratory wild birds are also the important source of outbreak of influenza. These birds are attracted to food in the farms or mini-farms in the villages. They will mix around with the poultry and hence this is where the virus can be efficiently transmitted. Therefore, actions must be taken to prevent the wild birds from venturing into these farms.

It is indeed a difficult task to control this outbreak. The Thai authorities have not achieved success yet. WHO had mentioned that this disease is going to stay in East Asia for a long time.

Outbreak
It's in the news today. The school principal had indicated that the students were quarantined. Well this is Malaysia....

Watch out! Another outbreak...!
Sorry for the long break. No time to write. I am tempted to write another blog concerning another issue that crop up in the news. Very interesting one. Over 100 chicken died in a residential school in Perak. This is actually a school poultry project. At the same time, there is also an outbreak of fever among the students. About 40 students were affected. A sensible guess would be an outbreak of avian influenza that killed the chicken and then managed to infect the students. This is of course very classical. What the Ministry of Health should do is to quarantine the students and conduct thorough investigations on the cause of the outbreak. This is no joke. Very serious matter. Should influenza go out of hand, we are in big trouble...public health and economic impact. The Minister of Health has announced that the chicken died of Newcastle disease and the students were mildly affected. It is good news if this is true. He also denied any quarantine as reported in the news. What is this? I would be very worried if these students are not quarantined. Here you are dealing with a potentially dangerous unknown virus and the students are let loose. This is a potential blunder that could further add to the list of blunders in the past. We will see....

Welcome to the new students
After about a week of controversy, the decision has been made by the minister of Higher Education. The 128 aspiring doctors were taken in... to government as well as private universities...fully sponsored (if they pass!). Lucky souls. He has also agreed to introduce an entrance exam in future (which is fair) and hope it can minimise future controversies. An orientation programme will also be introduced to applicants next year. This is good because it will weed out those who have the preset mind that doctors earn tons of money. The reality is doctors work extra long hours and are underpaid in our system. The only thing that makes our day is satisfaction to treat or help patients. Now that is what I call a true doctor.

Enter medical school
Today, it's in the news. Cheers to the remaining 128 students who initially could not enter the public medical schools because of limited places. I strongly feel some of the students (though intellingent) do not deserve to enter medical schools. Nothing to do with envy. The fact is some of these students are 'forced' by their parents to apply even though they are not interested in medicine at all. The problem of uninterested students are genuiene as shown by incidents in my faculty. I can easily provide no less than 5 names who are forced to do medicine by their parents. Being a lecturer who teach future doctors, I would prefer a student with a caring heart but did not manage to score in these exams. It is the trend now that doctors produced in the country are getting less compassionate on the profession. God forbid, the future doctors may lose the human touch and treat us like numbers and call us 'patients' rather than our names. Something is wrong somewhere with our education system...

My first blog
Honestly, I don't know what contributions can I give to the world by publishing blogs. Well, I've decided to give it a try. Since this is my first blog, so don't expect something monsterous. Good luck to me.