Kota Star / MBBS 13: Day 5 (20.2.11)

by Tan Chia Hoong & Ong Han Yi

We started off our fine morning with meeting at vector unit. The vector unit staffs had their routine meeting at 8.05am. After their meeting adjourned, we had a discussion session with Mr. Lai, Mr. Fauzi, Mr.Redhuwan and few other vector unit staffs. Dr.Hisham also joined us in this session. We discussed on vector borne disease which causes epidemic in Kota Star. They also brief us about detail of vector unit such as job responsibilities and infrastructure, strategies for epidemic investigation, vector control programs structure functions and job responsibilities, vector controls measures and law on vector control. Also, we got exciting news that we were given a chance to follow the vector unit staffs for a fogging activity in the evening.

~ routine morning meeting at vector unit ~

~ our briefing with vector unit staffs & Dr,Hisham ~

~ with Mr.Redzuwan & Mr.Nasrul (our supervisor) ~

~ group members with vector unit staffs ~

~ collected lava sample ~

In the afternoon, we had a briefing at the HIV unit. Ever since the first case of AIDS was established in America 1981, research institutes are established to identify the virus causing AIDS, understanding the pathogenesis, discover the method of diagnosis and treatment of the disease. There are many diagnostic tools for detecting specific antibodies to the virus, eg: enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA), western blot test… etc

We are lucky today to have observed the fastest way to show the results--- HIV rapid test. It takes 5-20 minutes to show the results. Hence the test is used for screening program. Believe me, it is ‘rapid’ & ‘effective’. Our group members volunteered themselves for the test enthusiastically. Each of them gave 20 ml of whole blood, which is about 2 drops of blood and 4 drops of assay dilution was required for HIV test. After a while, there will be stripes appeared on the test kit. It shows HIV negative and can even differentiate between HIV serotype 1 or 2. Around 4.30 pm, our session at HIV unit ended. We then went to Star Parade to hang out while waiting to go for the fogging activity at 6pm.

~ briefing at HIV unit ~

~ HIV rapid test ~

~ group members doing the HIV rapid test ~

The fogging activity was done at Taman Muhibah, at about 7 pm. This is down in late evening because the Aedes mosquitoes are active at this time. It is advisable to begin fogging at late afternoon than early morning (though both early morning and late afternoon are active hours of Aedes) because the residents may not be awake to open the houses’ doors and windows for the coverage of the whole housing area.

~ Mr.Lai briefing us at the fogging site ~

The fogging team from the Kota Star district consists of 1 Health Inspector (Mr Lai), 2 drivers and 6 Pekerja Rendah Awam (PRA). The model of fogging machine used is Agrofog 35. The personnel were equipped with PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) as a protective gear. It took about 2 and half hours to cover about 200m radius from the patient’s resident.