awareness-of-hepatitis-a-and-hepatitis-b-among-residents-in-kuala-lumpur-and-selangor

Abstract

A survey was carried out to assess the level of knowledge and vaccination coverage of hepatitis A and B among 753 subjects (>12 years of age) from rural areas, town areas, undergraduates and healthcare workers. The main objective of the study was to assess the relationship between the extent of hepatitis A and B knowledge and vaccination status of the participants. A questionnaire was distributed and completed by the subjects. The results showed that the overall level of knowledge among the public was low compared to healthcare workers and undergraduates. The hepatitis A vaccination coverage was very low among all the groups (<8%). The hepatitis B vaccination coverage was generally low among the groups of nonhealthcare workers (<35%) and higher among healthcare workers (65.6%). There was a strong correlation between the extent of knowledge of hepatitis A and B and the status of vaccination among the participants (p<0.01). The study concluded that health education on hepatitis A and B should be provided and vaccination programmes should be held more frequently among the public, especially in rural areas.

the-paradigm-shift-of-pharmacy-profession-at-post-covid-19-era-in-malaysia

“…In tandem with the evolvement of medicine, pharmacists are responsible for ensuring the safe and effective use of medications [1,2], and they play a key role in providing healthcare to the public as a frontliner, educator and clinician [3][4][5][6][7][8]. For instance, in community pharmacies, pharmacists dispense prescription and over-the-counter medications, compound extemporaneous preparation [9][10][11], provide medication, immunization, travel medicine and disease advice to patients [12][13][14][15], and offer other value added services such as medication adherence tool, blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring [16][17][18]. It is worth noting that with the implementation of Regulation 23 of Poison Regulation as early as year 1952, dispensing separation have been fully implemented in all public hospitals whereby all supply of medications should be solely on prescription and the supply to be recorded, labelled and dispensed at the pharmacy.…”