Community Medicine Batch 9: Group A : Day 2 Kuala Muda

Excitedly, looking forward for the briefing by the vector borne disease control unit and the fogging field trip as it was planned; all the group members arrived at the Kuala Muda District at 9am sharp. However, we were disappointed by the sudden cancellation of the trip due to insufficient staff to take control over us today. Instead, we had a session with Puan Norizan from the health promotion unit. This session was held in the gymnasium of the district. We were first introduced to the staffs that are in charge of this unit. Then, Puan Norizan explained to us in detail about the role played by this unit, and also the activities done for the community. There are program doctor muda(for primary school student), PROSTAR(for teenage) ,quit smoking program, etc. Video clips that are related to the above programme were shown to us. This session ended when all of us finished browsing through the storage brochures and posters of the unit.

Lunch was……. , well, S.P and were shown the vehicle used for health promotion announcement. Chou Luan and Zen Chia then became the MC for the day,blasting through the speakers.

Afternoon, we had a session with En. Wan from the nutrition department of Kuala Muda district. En. Wan explained to us about the 2 programmes that are done under his unit: they are the food basket programme and the breast feeding programme.

The food basket programme is a government subsidized programme specifically design for the 6 months-6 years old malnourished childrenwho are from the poorest family(income per capita lesser than RM 86.50) The food basket comprises the basic nutrient needed by the children (sufficient to supply 150% of calories needed by a child for 1 month). The children receiving the food basket will be assess physically every month.

The breast feeding programme is another programme that is run under the nutrition unit. All the pregnant ladies will be counsel about the benefit of breast feeding during the first antenatal visit, and be reminded again at the 36th weeks antenatal visit. Exclusive breast feeding will be introduced to the pregnant ladies during the booking as well. Apart from that, methods of breast feeding, storage of breast milk will be taught. Baby friendly hospital is encouraged, in which there will be no milk bottle, pacifier in the hospital.