04
current news
The HEALTH | NOVEMBER, 2018
Runners pledging to be organ donors
at the organ donation booth set up
by the National Transplant Resource
Centre.
Academia
students raise
awareness
on organ
donation
STUDENTS from the University of
Malaya Faculty of Medicine recently
raised awareness on the need for
organ donation through its charity
jogathon called ‘Organs for Love
Jogathon 2018’, with a focus on Kidney
Transplant as this year’s theme.
The event, participated by 415
people saw 87 new organ pledgers
by the end of the event. The jogathon
featured a seven kilometre run and a
five kilometre run.
Organs for Love raised RM1,
500 for the Malaysian Society of
Transplantation.
One organ donor can save up
to eight lives. Organs that can be
donated for transplants include kid-
neys, heart, lungs and liver. Tissues
that can be donated include eyes,
heart valves, bone, skin, veins and
tendons.
Currently in Malaysia, there are
about 21,500 patients waiting for
organ transplants of which 99 per
cent of them are awaiting kidney
transplants, while the others include
liver, heart and lungs.
No motivation,
time reasons
for not
exercising
BASED on a recent survey conducted
by a web news portal and Fitness
First Malaysia to find out more about
Malaysian fitness habits; 19.42 per
cent considered walking for hours
in the shopping mall as a form of
exercise, 51.32 per cent said the big-
gest obstacle that keeps them from
exercising is the lack of motivation.
Running a marathon and climbing
a mountain ranked among the top five
accomplishments that those surveyed
would like to achieve in life, while 18
was the average number of push-
ups those surveyed can do without
stopping.
The top three excuses for not exer-
cising are no motivation, no workout
buddy and no time.
Celebrity Fitness & Fitness First
Malaysia Head of Marketing Anusha
Segaren explained that more often
than not, we are time poor, we lack
motivation or find the gym intimidat-
ing. But when we do take the first
step towards fitness, the rewards will
follow and we start to realise how far
we’ve come.
(First left) Lion Mak Siew Foong representing Lions Club of PJ receiving the Keshmahinder Singh Award for Prevention of
Blindness from Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad while (right) THONEH’s Chairman Dato’ S. Kulasegaran looks on.
Tun Hussein Onn National
Eye Hospital celebrates
32nd anniversary
Health minister expresses his hope for public-private collaboration for
better eye-care
B
Y 2050, one in two
persons globally will
develop myopia with
Asians particularly
prone to myopia. The
prevalence of myopia in
Asian youth is currently
between 70 per cent and 87 per cent.
Minister of Health Malaysia Datuk
Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad who attended
the Tun Hussein Onn National Eye
Hospital (THONEH) 32nd anniversary
recently expressed his hope for public-
private collaboration to bring about a
positive synergy that will benefit the
public at large.
The celebration was held in conjunc-
tion with the World Sight Day 2018,
ASEAN Association of Eye Hospitals,
The Tun Hussein Onn Oration in
Ophthalmology and The Keshmahin-
der Singh Award for Prevention of
Blindness.
Dzulkefly continued to say that the
benefits can be materialised in the form
of better access to eye-care for all strata
of society in terms of economics and
affordability of curative and preventive
care, especially to the less fortunate B40
class (Malaysian households that earn
less than RM3, 900 per month) and the
visually impaired.
As part of the celebration, THONEH
also held a scientific meeting which
touched on the lifestyle leading to vision
impairment.
Presenting at the meeting was
THONEH Medical Advisory Committee
Chairman Dr Pall Singh who revealed a
statistic by the World Health Organisa-
tion (WHO) where approximately 1.3
billion people live with some form of
“If diagnosed
and treated early,
blindness is usually
preventable.
Another
worrying trend
is the prevalence
of diabetes,
which affects
approximately
30 per cent of
Malaysians. A
complication of
diabetes mellitus
can cause damage
to the blood vessels
in the retina,
leading to diabetic
retinopathy.”
– Dr Pall Singh
vision impairment, 36 million people are
blind and 80 per cent of those are aged
50 and over.
“If diagnosed and treated early, blind-
ness is usually preventable. Another
worrying trend is the prevalence of
diabetes, which affects approximately 30
per cent of Malaysians. A complication
of diabetes mellitus can cause damage
to the blood vessels in the retina, leading
to diabetic retinopathy.”
Age-related conditions leading to
blindness such as cataracts, refractive
errors and glaucoma can be treated or
cured with timely intervention being
important in reducing loss in vision.
Hence, education and awareness is
critical.
The meeting also witnessed a live
eye surgery using the Ngenuity 3D
Visualisation System, which is one of
the most advanced digitally assisted
surgical system ever developed.
Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad
officiating the ceremony while the rest
look on.