May this note find all in the best of health physicaly and spiritually

1. Gaza As all netters will have known by now, Viva Palestina and Global March to Jeruselam is organsing an event this weekned. Dato Dr. Musa has send quite a few updates on this. PPIM is in full support of these initaitives. All those in Klang Valley this weekend are strongly encouraged to attend. Some NGOs have already started building up to the occasion by organising motorcade last weekend to increase public awareness on the programme. PPIM is also helping junior specialist from Gaza obtain subspeciality hands on training stint in Malaysia for between 3-6 months. Funding has been secured and what we need are HODs to accomodate these junior specialists. Malaysia is the only country in th eworld which does not require a visa for Palestinians to come. HODs who can assist please drop me a line and I will give their Cvs and we will take it from there. For thsoe in MOH , once you agree , I will write to Dato Seri DG formally for permission. We will do it as G to G arrangement facilitated by PPIM inshaAllah
2. Syrian Appeal Jazakum Allah Khairan Kathiran to those who have contributed. More is needed as things are getting more desperate . FIMA though IMA Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are doing a lot on the ground. The laest we can do is give our financial assistance and continous doas . As some would have known by now 3 Islamic NGOs ( IKRAM, ABIM, HALUAN ) have demonstrated and send Memo of protest to teh Syrian Embassy two Fridays ago
3. FIMA 2012 Registrations are trickling in. I am sure all netters ( there are just over 1000 of us at last count 2 days ago ) would have received e mail blast from Dr. Suhazeli, our moderator. Please take this opportunity to get early bird registration offer and as PPIM members there is further discount. The MOH has given full support and blessing with Dato Seri DG himself writing to me to that effect. MOH members please take this opportunity to register. 200 posters and relevant infos have been sent to MOH facilities and others to Deans of Faculties of Medicine. Please also submit free papers. Dead line for free papers and Early bird is 1st June. 4. Medical Industry and Fraudulent Research Jazak Allah khairan to doctor Azman for more postings on the subject. The lesson to learn from all these is as Muslims we msut be actively involved in research at all levels , not just being cynical (being critical is ok) about it. Once we are actively involved, we will be the vanguard of quality and ethical research. It was good quality research which caused many drugs to be withdrawn from the market . The list includes many block busters and potential block buster ( mibefradil, cerivastatin, rosiglitazone, rimonabant, rofecoxib, sibutramine,). So my advise to prescribers among us is not to practice ‘ Fashionable Medicine’ by using products; drugs , devices or diagnostic tools before there are compelling and consistent evidence on its efficacy and safety. It will be good and ethical research which will eventually decide whether vaccines under questions currently are safe or otherwise The doctor who ‘repented’ after giving years of talk on HRT and CV in peri menopausal and menopausal women is a case of being paid to give talks when the evidence is not compelling. 30 observational studies showed than HRT may be useful ( that was when he went round convincing people to use it and being paid in the process ). When two mega RCTs on the issue was done, both end up negative. If he is ethical , he should write an article apologizing to his listeners for spreading hard baked research findings and being paid for that Another thread with these unbalanced postings is that they are trying to promote TCM products. Even TCM has its fair share of half cook and fraudulent research. More on this later Allah Knows Best .

We Human Have to Strive

Prof Dr Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman

Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman

Although it has been more than a month, let me once again congratulate the Perak Chapter for an excellent organisation of the last ASM. The feedback has all been very positive. It is most  gratifying when you know that it was done at the last minute with the state chapter chairman, secretary and assistant secretary all away on hajj/ official duties during the organisational period . To Drs. Zabidah and Dr. Wahi. Jazak Allah kahiran kathiran

The only states which have yet to organise ASM are Kedah/ Perlis, Melaka and Sarawak. It is our wish that all will have the chance to orgnise before we come back to KL but for next year we will have to make an exception

2. PPIM/FIMA 2012

It is now official that PPIM will host FIMA 2012. It will be held in the Istana Hotel KL between the13-15th of September.  The Theme will be ” Health and the Muslim World: Meeting the Mellinnium Development Goals “.  The first announcement and programme layout will be out within two weeks inshaAllah. We are hoping to get Dr. Elias Zerhouni, ex Director of NIH USA to come over as our main guest speaker inshaAllah. Although we have settled the main  organizational structure for the meeting,  I take this invitation to invite those interested to sit in the various subcommittee which we have. If interested please drop me a line and mention which subcommittee you will want to contribute

3. Rumah Solehah

It is now 12 years since PPIM started the Rumah Solehah project . It remains the only registered HIV shelter organised by a Muslim NGO in Malaysia. The only other one which was politically motivated has now ceased to be officially recognised by the ROS. In a few days time original  Rumah Solehah in Cheras will be handed over to the tenant and the new permanent premise  in Kampong Pandan will be the main abode. Last weekend  I attended a ceremony/ open house at Cheras and was most touched by the performances of the children. The many volunteers who attended were so touched that after listening to a nasyid performance a few of them approached Matron Fadilah asking how they can do ‘solat taubah’. As you can probably appreciate , some of these volunteers are themselves adopting high risk behaviours and the children did their part in making dakwah to them. Subhanallah

IMAM President

With the theme “Creativity in Health professional Life”, the camp was attended by almost 80 medical students from Indonesia, Malaysia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Turkey with participants Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was dominating the number. As for Malaysian participants, we were represented by five students which two of them were from local university and the rest were from UK, India and Egypt respectively. Among the doctors that were presence Dr. Atallah Al-Ruhaily, Dr. Riyadh Abu Sulaiman, Dr. Emad Khan, Dr Emad Al-Washmi and Dr Assad as invited guest speaker.

Dr Ikram

SOYDA’s 4th medical mobile in August was carried out from 26th to 27th August 2011. The target area of the mobile activities was Hodan district-specifically Sipiano and Terbon IDPs. The area was occupied by new influx of IDPs from Bakool and Bay region, and to some extent population from lower Shabelle. People living in the area we have met were in bad conditions in terms of health facilities, poor hygiene and sanitations. There was only one latrine in the compound residing more than 400 !

SOYDA activities also helped to increase access to Primary and Secondary life-saving health care services and emergency assistance amongst vulnerable populations particularly women, children and girls through provision of essential health services, for free. SOYDA also targeted the IDPs neglectedd by aid organisations.

The following are key achievements :

1. More than 869 Patients were seen

2. Provision of free Medical visitation, treatment and laboratory activities

3. Nutritional Screening of all under five years old

4. Treatment of chronic cases and their follow up

5. Provision of health education and sanitation programs to prevent water and vector born disease.

6. Mass aqua tab and chlorine distribution for water sterilization

7. Mass distribution of ORS to all HH

The following health and nutrional problems were identified:

· Severe and Moderate Malnutrition, Acute watery Diarrhea, Acute Respiratory infections and Measles mostly in children under 5 years old

· Respiratory Tract Infection, Intestinal Parasites and Anemia mostly in children above 5 years age

· Skin Infection, Enemia, Chronic diseases and Urinary Tract Infection mostly seen in adults

· Enemia, Pelvic Inflammatory disease mostly in pregnant mothers with no antenatal and postnatal care

Conclusion

This is the 4th mobile team for the month of August 2011.

There is unnecessary duplication of work in some IDP camps.

There is an urgent need for careful coordination of relief work to ensure every suffering individual or community receive attention

Very basic facilities eg sanitation, water supplies requires to be improved to prevent secondary communicable disease

Dr. Abdiqani Sheikh Omar

Executive Director of SOYDA