The HEALTH : October 2018 | Page 5

current news OCTOBER, 2018 | The HEALTH linked to care and treatment. FIND will demonstrate the feasibility of using rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) in decentralised primary healthcare facilities and provide technical assistance to the MOH to sup- port the project. All patients screened during the study with World Health Organisation pre- qualified diagnostic tests and confirmed as having active HCV (viraemia) will be linked to care. Treatment will be pro- vided - either as part of an ongoing DNDi clinical trial, which is co-sponsored by MOH and designed to assess the efficacy and safety of a new, alternative treatment regimen combining sofosbuvir with the investigational drug ravidasvir. Results from the first stage of the trial published in April show this drug combination to be safe and effective with extremely high cure rates for patients, including hard-to-treat cases or by the national HCV programme following an ambitious treatment strategy to overcome the prohibitively high cost of HCV treatment in the country, now offers free hepatitis C treatment (sofos- buvir/daclatasvir) in 21 government hospitals. “We are delighted to sign this memorandum that will enable IMU and NIH to work closely together and deepen our cooperation on health research and medical education with the single objective of bringing both areas to greater heights in the country.” – Professor Abdul Aziz enhancing research activities in its cur- riculum. The premier private medical university has an extensive international partnership with more than 20 estab- lished world-renown universities across the globe in providing world-class quality education. Via the collaboration, both parties will look forward to working closely together through joint appointments of visiting professors and visiting scientists, access to research and teaching resources such as laboratory facilities, specialised equipment and literatures, collaborative research and human resource develop- ment. 05 (From left to right) Evelyn with Continence Foundation Malaysia president Dr Peter Ng at the launching of the event. One of BRACE 2018 participants checking the blood pressure of a local at their mobile clinic. CUCMS students aid poor in Dhaka O TENA’s campaign raises awareness on urinary incontinence Responding to the tragedy, CUCMS’ students started collecting information, conducting research on the affected area and plan- ning for the mission in December 2017. This annual mission focused on providing health services, medical care, education and welfare support to the underprivileged community. BRACE 2018 advisor Associate Professor Dr Mohamed Ikram Mohamed Salleh emphasised that rural community exposures like this will help students understand better their role as soon-to-be healthcare professionals. BRACE 2018 included medical check-ups, health talks and provision of basic living items for short-term aid. Two of the long-term projects were providing medical bill cover- age for babies from poor families to stay in incubators at the Paediatric Department and the e