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Utusan Malaysia Online - Home News: “MELBOURNE Oct 3 - A group of Australia’s leading and internationally renowned medical specialists will visit Sarawak next week as part of a trade delegation from South Australia (SA) to Kuching and Kuala Lumpur.
Led by SA Industry and Trade Minister Rory McEwen, this is the first time that such a group of top medical specialists will visit Sarawak.
A seminar on ‘Medicine in the 21st Century’ will be conducted at the Kuching Hilton Hotel on Tuesday, Oct 7, at 6.30 pm when the specialists will outline some of the latest advances in medicine.
Leading the specialists is Professor Tan Hock Lim, who is the Inaugural Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the University of Adelaide and Head of the Department of Paediatric Surgery at the Women’s & Children’s Hospital.
Acknowledged as a world pioneer and an international expert in keyhole surgery in children, Malaysian-born Professor Tan will explain how it is now possible to perform complex surgical procedures in young children without needing to make an open cut, using some of the techniques and equipment which he designed.
According to Professor Tan, these new techniques will completely revolutionise how surgical conditions in children are treated.
He will also visit the Sarawak General Hospital where he will conduct a series of lectures to surgeons and will perform keyhole surgery on several Sarawakian Children with Dr Anne John, Head of the Department of Surgery, who is also an Australian-trained paediatric surgeon.
Another member of the visiting medical team will be Dr John Chen, a Sarawakian now living in Adelaide. He is the deputy director of the Liver Transplantation Department at Flinders University and is an expert on liver cancers.
Dr Chen will give a talk on the latest treatment for liver cancers and liver transplantation.

Dr Suren Krishnan, an ex-Singaporean and expert on reconstructive head and neck surgery, will talk on surgery for head and neck cancers, while Dr Martin Borg, an expert on radiotherapy from the Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Centre, will discuss the latest treatment for cancer of the nose, a common cancer among Asians. Dr Borg will be making his fourth trip to Kuching and will give a separate talk on breast cancer on Monday night.

Professor Alan Crockett, an expert on chest diseases, will give an update on asthma and other common chest conditions.

“We are keen to share our expertise with Malaysian specialists and to develop links with Sarawakian specialists and to help Malaysia train more specialists,” Professor Tan said.

“A new telehealth system, about to be launched in Australia, will make it easy for Sarawak specialists to link up with their Australian counterparts for real time virtual consultation.”

Dr Chris Hughes, an authority in telehealth, will tell the Sarawak medical seminar how this can be done.

Dr Krishnan, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons chairman for South Australia and Northern Territories, says that “coming from this part of the world, many of us would like to give something back” - a sentiment shared by Dr Chen and Professor Tan.

The seminar, to be opened by McEwen, is free and is inclusive of a networking dinner. It is open to the public.

It is jointly sponsored by the Australia-Malaysia Business Council (SA) Inc and the South Australia Government and has the support of the Malaysian Medical Association (Sarawak Chapter), the Sarawak Alumni of the University of Adelaide (SAUA) and the Australia Business Centre, Sarawak.

The free admission is on a first come first served basis via registration. Those interested to attend the seminar can register by contacting Dr. Kiu, of the Malaysian Medical Association (Sarawak Chapter) on 082-874037, or contact Rodger Chan, of the Australia Business Centre in Sarawak, on 082-48388, 483999 or 012-8840033 or email rodgerc@tm.net.my.

The Sarawak Alumni of the University of Adelaide can be contacted via Fong on 082-346712 or 016-8592411 or Dr Sim Swee Liang on 082-247693.

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Health: Hold on to those pearly whites: “A BIG, bright smile can cheer up a dull day and make anyone feel good. But, says periodontist (gum specialist) Datin Dr Rosnah Abdul Jalil, in order to have a nice smile, you need good teeth and to keep your good teeth, you need healthy gums.

So for the past 24 years Dr Rosnah has been educating people about the importance of looking after their teeth and creating awareness that caring for the gums is just as important.

“Our gums are very, very important. If the gums are weak, the teeth can loosen and eventually fall out,” she says with concern.

Her worry is well-placed. If Dr Rosnah’s observations over more than two decades in the Government dental service can be used as a yardstick, the condition of Malaysian teeth is a cause for worry.

“When I was teaching at the Faculty of Dentistry at Universiti Malaya (UM), I saw that in so many cases people would come in for treatment only when their teeth were starting to loosen. They had no idea that they had a gum disease which was at a critical stage. And once you’ve had gum disease, you will always be susceptible to re-infection because there is a chance that a small percentage of the bacteria that caused it will remain in your mouth,” she explains.

A loose tooth is an indication that a person has gum disease. If it is extracted, it is usually because there is a cavity, not because the tooth is loose. Unlike the shattering pain of a tooth ache, gum disease starts slowly and silently.

“It is a silent disease, happening inside the gum. All of us have bacteria in our mouth and it is normal. Known as the grand positive healthy bacteria, it gets dangerous when the number of bacteria increases, or the bacteria moves into the crown of the tooth if a person d”

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Daily Express, Sabah, Malaysia — News Headlines: “Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian researchers will work with global partners to achieve the worldwide target of eliminating cancer by 2015, Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng said Thursday.
He said the seven institutes under the National Health Institute of Malaysia would be linked to renowned health research institutes such as the National Health Institute (NIH) at Bethesda, USA and the Swedish Karolynska Health Institute.
�We are looking at various fields of co-operation as well as research grants for Malaysians to do research at NIH USA,� he told reporters after a cheque presentation by Marie France Bodyline Sdn Bhd for SMI Women Entrepreneur Award here.
The SMI Women Entrepreneur Award would be presented during the SMI Recognition Award Series 2003 at Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre tonight (Friday).
Chua said during his recent visit to the US, he visited Bethesda and was impressed with the research conducted at the 21 institutes under the NIH there.
�Malaysians are particularly keen to collaborate with the US National Cancer Institute, the forerunners for the cancer research worldwide as well as in the field of bio-science.�
�We are concerned over the cancer cases in the country and NIH Malaysia is hopeful that it will be part of the international collaboration to eliminate cancer by 2015,� he said.
�We will start the international network this month, and the Institute of Traditional Medicine, under NIH Malaysia will establish the link. Already, the China National Academy of Traditional Medicine has agreed to work with us,� he said.
At the same news conference, Chua also said all agencies under his ministry had been directed to enforce the law against the sale of unregistered medicine including imitation viagra pills.- Bernama “

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Malaysia to link up with Swedish centre for bioscience research: “KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will link up with the world’s largest research centre in Sweden to expand its research in biosciences and biotechnology, Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng said.
He said collaboration between the Institute of Medical Research and Karolynska Institute in Sweden would begin next year.
He also said the country’s national institutes of health (NIHs) would also collaborate with their US counterparts in Bethesda, Maryland.
Chua said the decision on collaboration was made by the Cabinet following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s trip to Sweden and his own visit to the US.
Research grants, worth about RM150,000 each per year, would be offered by the NIHs in the US to local researchers and scientists to conduct their PhDs, he said, adding that several candidates would be selected by next year for these grants.
Chua told reporters this after receiving a cheque worth RM100,000 from Marie-France Bodyline Sdn Bhd for exclusive naming rights in the upcoming SMI Recognition Award Series 2003.
He also said China’s National Academy of Traditional Medicine has also agreed to work with Malaysia on research and development after the recent visit to Beijing by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. “