Day: November 3, 2021

KUALA LUMPUR— The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) will be hosting insigHT2021, the region’s leading medical travel market intelligence conference, which is set to take place virtually from Nov 16 to 18.

Themed Forging Resilience, insigHT2021 will focus on how the global medical travel industry can remain resilient in manoeuvring through uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now in its sixth instalment, the conference has grown to attract many international speakers and audiences, who recognise insigHT2021 as a platform to strategise and collaborate in sustaining and growing the healthcare travel industry.

MHTC chief executive officer Mohd Daud Mohd Arif said the global severity of the pandemic has posed several challenges for the medical travel industry value chain due to prolonged lockdowns on both the local and international scale.

“It is crucial that the medical travel industry turns lessons learnt from COVID-19 into actionable strategies. This is where insigHT plays the role of fodder for ideas to drive the industry forward into the future.

“However, if there is one thing we can take from the pandemic, it is that cross-collaboration is crucial in accelerating industry recovery and our nation’s healthcare landscape moving forward,” he said in a statement today.

InsigHT2021 is poised as a catalyst for cross-collaboration as the conference gathers key speakers and experts across various sectors of the value chain to share insights on post-pandemic recovery strategies and opportunities for industry resilience.

Participants stand to benefit from live question-and-answer (Q & A) sessions with regional speakers, roundtable discussions, networking with experts from various industries through private meetings and downloading e-business cards as well as gaining access to on-demand videos from the conference.

Among topics that will be discussed during the conference are reimaging the health system, the future of healthcare and well-being, and rebuilding hospitality.

Joining insigHT2021 is an esteemed line-up of speakers comprising of global thought leaders and experts in the field of medical travel, including Malaysia’s Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Indonesia’s Deputy Minister for Tourism Product and Events Ir Rizki Handayani and Malaysia’s Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“Through initiatives such as insigHT2021, we will continue to build trust for Malaysia Healthcare as a thought leader for the industry, our priority during this recovery period is to forge resilience for the sector driven by collaboration with industry players to further build a conducive and sustainable healthcare travel ecosystem,” Mohd Daud added.

InsigHT2021 is supported by TM One (Digital Partner), Tourism Malaysia, Tourism Selangor, IMM Carehub, and Magicopper. For more information and to register for insigHT2021, visit www.mhtc.org.my/insigHT2021.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR— Malaysia could only send 8,312 Rohingya refugees to third countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan, from 2003 to 2021, said Deputy Foreign Minister Kamarudin Jaffar.

He said the issue over the resettlement of Rohingya refugees in third countries was often highlighted by the government in discussions with foreign nations and on international platforms, but there were little results.

“The United States had been taking in the most number of refugees, with over 7,000 people while Finland, only took one in the past 18 years, so the results were not very encouraging.

“As such, we need to continue to work with countries around the world, especially through ASEAN,” he said at the Dewan Rakyat (Parliament lower house) on Wednesday.

He said this in reply to a question whether Malaysia is able to handle the Rohingya refugees in the country, said to have increased to over 200,000 people.

Kamarudin added that the ministry had been working with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to seek ways to speed up the resettlement of Rohingya refugees in third countries.

“Malaysia had also repeatedly stressed that our country cannot afford to accommodate the increasing number of Rohingya refugees and had called on the international community to come forward to help find a lasting solution,” he said.

On the ministry’s joint efforts with ASEAN countries to resolve the Rohingya issue, Kamarudin said Malaysia had often emphasised the importance of ASEAN to urge Myanmar to address the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine State.

He said Malaysia had also strongly urged Myanmar to implement the recommendations submitted by the ASEAN-Emergency Response and Assessment Team (ASEAN-ERAT) as well as the Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA).

“This is to ensure that the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar is voluntarily, carried out safely and with dignity and that the number of refugees heading for Malaysia is reduced,” he said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

GENEVA— The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for the urgent development of a vaccine against a bacterial infection responsible for nearly 150,000 stillbirths and infant deaths each year.

A fresh report by the UN health agency and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the impact of Group B Streptococcus infection (GBS), which is estimated to live harmlessly in the intestinal tracts of up

to a third of all adults, is a far bigger cause of preterm births and disability than previously thought.

The report confirmed a previous devastating finding from 2017 that the bacterium causes almost 100,000 newborn deaths and close to 50,000 stillbirths each year, although it pointed to significant data gaps suggesting the true figures could be higher.

And for the first time it quantified the impact on preterm births, finding that GBS is behind more than half a million early deliveries each year, leading to significant long-term disability.

In light of such staggering numbers, the report authors lamented that more progress had not been made towards developing a vaccine.

“This new research shows that Group B strep is a major and underappreciated threat to newborn survival and wellbeing, bringing devastating impacts for so many families globally,” Phillipp Lambach of WHO’s immunisation department said in a statement.

“WHO joins partners in calling for urgent development of a maternal GBS vaccine, which would have profound benefits in countries worldwide.”

Professor Joy Lawn, who heads LSHTM’s maternal adolescent, reproductive and child health centre, agreed.

“Maternal vaccination could save the lives of hundreds of thousands of babies in the years to come,” she said, decrying the lack of progress since the idea of developing a jab against GBS was first raised three decades ago.

On average, 15 percent of pregnant women worldwide, or nearly 20 million annually, carry the GBS bacterium in their vagina.

But even though most of these cases show no symptoms, an infected pregnant woman can pass GBS to her foetus via the amniotic fluid, or during birth as the infant passes through the vaginal canal.

Babies and foetuses are particularly vulnerable because their immune systems are not strong enough to fight the multiplying bacteria.

If untreated, GBS can lead to meningitis and septicaemia, which can be deadly. Babies that survive may develop cerebral palsy, or permanent sight and hearing problems.

Wednesday’s report showed that the bacterium leaves some 40,000 infants each year with neurological impairments.

Currently, women with GBS are given antibiotics during labour to reduce the chance of it passing to their baby.

But this approach poses problems in places where screening and antibiotic administration during labour are less accessible.

Tellingly, the highest rates of maternal GBS are found in sub-Saharan Africa — which alone accounts for around half of the global burden — and Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, the study showed.

It suggested that a GBS vaccine that could be administered to pregnant women during routine pregnancy checkups and that reached over 70 percent of pregnant women could avert 50,000 infant and foetus deaths each year.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

MANILA– President Rodrigo Duterte said today that, local government officials will be punished, for falling behind their targets for Covid-19 vaccinations, as the Philippines seeks to open up the economy.

The Philippines, which has one of Asia’s worst COVID-19 pandemics, has so far fully immunised a little over a third of 77 million people eligible for shots.

Duterte said, there was no reason why daily vaccinations could not be ramped up to at least a million, from an average of 500,000, since the country has sufficient stock of vaccines.

“We saw fault lines in the overall picture of our vaccination programme. I am not contented,” Duterte said, in a recorded address aired today.

Duterte said, local officials “who are not performing nor using the doses given to them, in a most expeditious manner” would be sanctioned and made accountable.

He did not spell out the penalties.

The government has gradually been easing Covid-19 curbs, and today, it announced it was lifting the nightly curfew, imposed in the capital region, from tomorrow.

Duterte asked the police and military to use planes and helicopters, to deliver the vaccines faster to the provinces.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

NAIROBI— The Government of Korea has donated 10,000 KF 94 type of masks as a good gesture for the continued good cordial relations between Kenya and South Korea.

State Department for Implementation of Curriculum Reforms Principal Secretary, Prof. Fatuma Chege received the donation from Korean Ambassador to Kenya Choi Yeonghan, as South Korea also marked the Korean National Day.

Prof. Chege thanked the South Korean Government for its continued support toward the fight against Covid-19 pandemic and good cordial bilateral relations. The masks are to be given to secondary schools across the country.

This even as the government committed to construct 541 classrooms in Nakuru County ahead of the transition of learners from primary to junior secondary schools at a cost of Ksh 426.3 million.

County Director of Education Fredrick Osewe said the Ministry of Education, is working jointly with Ministry of Interior and the National Treasury, to establish a framework for the construction of the classrooms in 322 selected secondary school to provide the additional learning space required for the over 54,000 new students set to join junior secondary within the devolved unit.

Speaking during a consultative session with Deputy County Commissioners and officials from Public Works Department on the planned construction of the targeted classrooms, Osewe indicated that 53 selected secondary schools across the 11 sub-counties will each get three new classrooms while 105 and 160 others will each have 2 new classrooms and 1 new classroom constructed respectively.

The County Director of Education said the building of the classrooms, each at a projected cost of Shs 788,000 would be constructed by contractors based near the schools, and the money will be remitted directly to the contractors in their respective sub-counties.

“This initiative will tap into the skilled manpower within the counties, empowering locals with enhanced economic opportunities,” he added.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN– Brunei recorded 75 new cases, including three imported ones, bringing the national tally of confirmed cases to 13,321 by yesterday.

Minister of Health, Dr Mohd Isham Jaafar said, there were 26 new cases to eight existing clusters, who were previously close contacts to several positive cases.

Three new clusters have been detected involving 20 cases. Syazwanes Contractor Cluster, Meem Cluster, and Ban 3 Construction Staffhouse Cluster, are all accommodation clusters, housing employees.

Twenty-six new cases are being investigated to determine sources of the infection.

Meanwhile, on the imported cases, Mohd Isham said, “Two cases arrived in Brunei from Kuala Lumpur on Oct 20, while one case arrived in Brunei from Manila on Oct 27.

“One cluster – Cluster 5182 – has been closed, following no new cases detected for 28 days, bringing the number of active clusters to 172.”

He said, 221 cases recovered as of yesterday, bringing the total number of recovered cases to 11,723, while the number of active cases stands at 1,508.

Of the cases receiving treatment, Mohd Isham said, six in Category 5 were in the intensive care unit and required artificial ventilation assistance.

“Meanwhile, 15 cases are categorised in Category 4, requiring oxygen assistance and are under close monitoring,” he said, at the daily press conference yesterday.

“Over the past 24 hours, 5,047 samples have been tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, bringing the total number of laboratory tests conducted since Jan, 2020, to 512,574,” the minister added.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK