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IRON MEN :
04 | MONTH OF JULY , 2018 RM5.00 | PP19292 / 03 / 2018 ( 034850 www . revonmedia . com
PULSE OF THE NATION
WONDER WOMEN :
ELECTRIC CHILDREN :
Full story on p30-31
FITNESS :
MMCGamuda KVMRT ( PDP ) Sdn Bhd ’ s Dato ’ Ir Wong Wai Ching speaks of his game since 1987 .
ISSUE : HEPATITIS
Characterised by access fat in the liver , the disease is divided into two ; alcoholic and non-alcoholic . Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease occurs in a person that doesn ’ t consume significant amounts of alcohol .
JULY , 2018 | The HEALTH
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A picture of Dr Nazni Wasi Ahmad winning the National Innovation Awards for the production of sterile maggots used to treat diabetic wounds .
Picture shows an intractable wound due to diabetics and the appearance of fresh tissue after a week of maggot debridement therapy . started with the source , problem and how to control it .”
“ So , we basically found the source to be the poultry farm which faces the biggest problem due to its resistance . So we had to find other new methods of controlling them .”
A discussion with her superior got her to view flies in a more positive aspect — one that led her to look into maggots .
“ Overseas , they are using Lucilia Sericata . However in Malaysia , we do not have this species . We only have Lucilia Cuprina ; the sister of Lucilia Sericata — which is bronze in colour and feeds on micriotic tissues ( dead tissues ).
Although the strain usually lays its eggs in heaps of rubbish , Nazni faced difficulty in having them lay their eggs in a lab environment .
“ We just couldn ’ t establish a colony . It took us almost six months — using numerous types of medium such as mice chow with skim milk , meat and thin liver slices . However , there were no results . It was not until we used thick liver with blood that they started laying eggs .”
“ If we are going to mass produce , we need to know how often they lay eggs . We found out from our studies that flies lay eggs alternate days . These are some of the biological things that we discovered .”
Their live term in the lab with vitamin B complex and sugar is up to 30 days . Nevertheless , the population decreases in time .
“ From our ‘ Mark Release Recapture Study ’, we found that in the field , they only survive less than seven days , which is why the female produce 150 eggs per egg laying .”
When they started to lay eggs , the procedure was set for Nazni – leaving her the task of sterilising them a 100 percent , packaging and sending them to the hospital setting .
An old therapy package in a new setting
“ Doctors generally do not want to use this as it is an old remedy , as there are many other modern methods ,” Nazni lamented .
“ During World War 2 , Napoléon ’ s soldiers found that the flies laid eggs on wounded soldiers and wounds were cleared . Because of the antibiotic era , people forgot the benefits of this therapy . They , however reverted to maggots ’ therapy recently with the up rise of the antibiotic resistance era .
The first trial
The first trial involved 12 patients at the Lumut Hospital in 2004 . Among them , 10 completely healed and became a living testimony .
Two years later , a second trial was carried out on 30 patients . The outcome was again a positive one ; where patients healed and were discharged at a miraculously short period of time – thus reducing the occupancy rate of hospital beds . The study was published in the ‘ International Wound Journal ’.
“ 2007 onwards , we started using Maggot Debridement Therapy ( MDT ) in hospitals . Patients could come in to have the maggots placed onto their wounds , return home and two days later , return to have their bandages opened . Patients cure faster as the maggots ’ debrides by eating micriotic tissues , then granulates them , which enables new tissue formation .”
Nazni gave another example of a patient who was on dialysis with a severe case of gangrene in 2009 at the Serdang Hospital . She was scheduled to have a below knee amputation , but her leg was saved and gangrene cleared with MDT . Her feet was slightly distorted but she could walk again .
Since then , 6,000 patients have been treated . MDT is today made available in 51 hospitals throughout Malaysia and is totally halal .
Apart from working on forensic cases dealing with crime and post mortem ’ s to determine time of death , she is currently undertaking sterile insect technique – to sterilise male mosquitoes and release them in the field to suppress the population gradually .
( Centre ) Ministry of Health ( MOH ) director general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah with ( first on his right ) Institute Malaysia Research director Dato ’ Dr Fadzilah Kamaludin , ( third left ) Dr Nazni Wasi Ahmad and her team member ( first left ) Teh Chien Huey . With them are MOH team members who attended the World Health Assembly ( second left ) Noriza Zakaria , ( sixth and seventh from left ) Dr Nik Jasmine Nik Mahir and Dr Azuana Ramli .
Iron Men : Disability and sex , is it possible ? p22
Bed wetting in children . Control can be achieved p20
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Hormones that lead to weight gain p24
HIGHLIGHT : Medical negligence : Know your right as a patient p14-15
Passion for golf never fades
p28
EXCLUSIVE :
Saving limbs with Maggot Debridement Therapy
Dr Nazni Wasi Ahmad speaks of saving the lives of diabetic patients using Maggot Debridement Therapy and her experience winning the 2018 Dr LEE Jong-wook Memorial Prize during the World Health Assembly in Geneva , Switzerland
Fatty liver disease
p13