d' Padang Terap Team Reporting....

Day 1(27 July 2008)

Reported at the district health office at 9am and we were welcomed by Mr. Musarrahad the Assistant Health and Environment Officer of the Food Safety and Quality Control Unit and subsequently briefed us on the general workings of the district health office. We had a general overview of the demographic details of the locality and the structural unit of the office and their respective responsibilities.
Padang Terap is the one of the biggest district in state of Kedah with total size of 1300 km2 with total population of about 68,768 peoples. The health office of the district situated at Kuala Nerang approximately 35km from North Alor Setar toll exit.

There is 1070 staffs of various ranks working in the District Health Office, headed by its respectable district health officer Dr.Latifah. There is
1)HOSPITAL KUALA NERANG
2)4 health clinic KLINIK KESIHATAN LUBUK MERBAU
 KLINIK KESIHATAN KUALA NERANG
 KLINIK KESIHATAN NAKA
 KINIK KESIHATAN BANDAR KUALA NERANG aka. HOSP K.NERANG,
3)16 “KLINIK DESA” under the administrative umbrella of Padang Terap District health office.

The ratio of health clinic to the population is, 1:22,922 while the ratio of “KLINIK DESA” to the population is 1:4298.





Soon after the general briefing, Mr.Pregas Rathnam the Assistant Health and Environment Officer of the Food Safety and Quality Control Unit (Unit Keselamatan & Kualiti Makanan) commenced briefing on the workings and organization of the unit. He explained to us the responsibilities and protocols undertaken by the unit to control the safety and quality of food in this district.
Their responsibilities governed are:

 Food safety and toxicology control
 food contamination control program, eradication and control of Aflatoxin in
food
 Food sampling
 Food premises inspection
 Closure of food premises
 Food seizing and to destroy if necessary
 Food poisoning investigation and control
 Issuance of license to bottled water manufacturer
 Imported food control
 Exported food control  issuance of “Health Certificate”
 Prosecutions and legal proceedings
 Industry and consumer education
 Laboratory services support

We were assured that we will be called to join a field work soon………. We thank them a lot for their kind and considerate cooperation.
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Day 2 (28 July 2008)

Today at 8.45am, we met with Mr.Azlan Hussain the PKA of HIV/AIDS division of CDC unit. He talk to us about the unit workings and also the AIDS/HIV eradication and education program especially to teens from 13-30 years old. He told us real time stories and the challenges they face in preventing and educating the people on AIDS/HIV.

He also told about the programs and the counselling sessions which they conduct at district level.

Then after the short tea break, we met Mr.Faizul, one of the PPKP of CDC unit about notification of diseases, the procedure involved and also the process of dealing diseases like dengue, thypoid, HMFD and food poisoning. He also chat with us some realtime experiences.

Tomorrow we're joining the CDC unit again and expecting a fulfilled field work.
Till then, chiow.....