KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 — With Malaysia ranked 18th by the Global Health Security (GHS) Index 2019 out of 195 countries, it shows that the country is prepared when it comes to preventing, detecting and responding to infectious disease outbreaks.
The GHS index is an internationally recognised assessment of a country’s capability in handling any outbreak, including the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) which has so far tested positive on four Chinese nationals who entered the country.
As such, the public must have confidence in the Health Ministry (MoH) and the government who had been working hard to provide the people with the best protection against the coronavirus threat.
Disease clusters in Malaysia is not something new. The country had faced other threats such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, Nipah virus (1998-1999) and Influenza A (2009 and more recently) through which the MOH gained extensive experience and managed to enhance its expertise in dealing with the outbreaks.
According to Malaysian Public Health Medicine Specialist Association president Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar, based on his experience in the disease control division, it is evident that the current measures taken by MoH to address the coronavirus threat, reflect the government’s maturity in addressing such issues.
“As this is not the first time we are dealing with such situations, we already have the screening system and procedures such as contact tracing, quarantine, monitoring in place and when there is a patient-under-investigation (PUI), they will be referred to the Sungai Buloh Hospital,” he told Bernama when contacted today.
He said Sungai Buloh Hospital is the best referral and treatment centre for infectious diseases in Malaysia, besides being among the best in Asia with adequate equipment and well-recognised experts.
As such, Zainal Ariffin said the public should not doubt the capabilities of MoH medical staff as they constantly undergo simulation exercises and are well trained to deal with issues such as the coronavirus infection.
“The people should also not have doubts on measures taken by the government as every decision is based on the advice of a panel of professionals in the medical field.
“What is happening now is there are too many ‘experts’ without actual knowledge and social media platforms like Facebook has become a ‘political theater’ to take advantage of the situation to cause panic.
“My advice is to read authentic news issued by MoH, refer to medical journals for facts and don’t listen to rumours as they may cause worry,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to the GHS index released last October, Malaysia appears to be more prepared than neighbouring countries such as Singapore and Indonesia, which were ranked 24th and 30th respectively, out of 195 countries.
The countries are listed in three categories — most prepared, more prepared and least prepared — with Malaysia in the second category.
The United States was ranked first with a score of 83.5, followed by Britain (77.9) and the Netherlands (75.6) while Thailand was ranked 6th (73.2) and South Korea 9th (70.2)
The GHS Index is a project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHU) and was developed with The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to evaluate on the preparedness of nations in facing the increasing risks of high-consequences and globally catastrophic biological events. — Bernama
