Among public health challenges in Afghanistan, communicable diseases still predominate because the epidemiologic transition to chronic disease has not yet occurred. Afghanistan's 10-year journey to improve its response to communicable disease is reflected in varying degrees of progress and innovation, all while long-standing conflict and geographic inaccessibility limit outreach and effective service delivery to vulnerable populations. Although Afghanistan is close to achieving polio elimination, other reportable communicable diseases are only slowly achieving their goals and objectives through targeted, sustained programmatic efforts. The introduction of disease early warning systems has allowed for identification and investigation of outbreaks within 48 hours. Tuberculosis case detection has risen over the last 10 years, and treatment success rates have been sustained at World Health Organization targets over the last 5 years at 85%. These successes are in large part due to increased government commitment, Global Fund support, training of community health workers and improved laboratory capabilities. Malaria cases dropped between 2002 and 2010. HIV/AIDS has been kept at low levels except in only certain sub-sectors of the population. In order to build on these achievements, Afghanistan will need a comprehensive strategy for all communicable diseases, with better human and infrastructure development, better multi-sectoral development and international collaboration.

Background: It is a major public health concern when 52% of adults worldwide were overweight and obese. Military institutions worldwide were included, which led to negative impacts on the overall combat readiness due to the obesity-associated-diseases. This study determined the prevalence and predictors of overweight and obesity among the low socioeconomic status (SES) army personnel in Kuala Lumpur. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 772 low SES army personnel in Kuala Lumpur was conducted. Online questionnaires were distributed while anthropometric measurements’ data were obtained from Military Lifetime Health Record (MLHR) system with BMI of > 25kg/m2 as the outcome. Data analysed using SPSS version 23.0 (descriptive and inferential statistics). Results: The median age of the respondents was 30 (IQR=7) years. The prevalence of overweight and obese army personnel was 41.1% (95%CI:37.6-44.6). The predictors found were being married (AOR:2.026,95%CI:1.318-3.113), secondary education (AOR:2.545,95%CI:1.245-5.203), Lance Corporal (AOR:1.994,95%CI:1.061-3.748), Corporal (AOR:2.814,95%CI:1.578-5.020), Sergeant (AOR:4.174,95%CI:2.076-8.390), past injury (AOR:1.879,95%CI: 1.191-2.965), history of obese sibling (AOR:1.737,95%CI:1.013-2.973), history of obese parent (AOR:3.344,95%CI:1.965-5.688), history of obese grandparent (AOR:11.321,95%CI:2.207-58.072), poor knowledge on dietary intake (AOR:1.524,95%CI:1.077-2.157), less than 2 litres daily plain water intake (AOR:1.606,95%CI:1.166-2.210). Conclusions: Knowledge on dietary intake and plain water intake are the two modifiable predictors for overweight and obesity found in this study, while the other nine predictors are non-modifiable. Understanding on issues surrounding the low SES group will help the strategic level in planning for future comprehensive interventions on overweight and obesity, specifically targeting on those predictors.

Background:  The COVID-19 pandemic situation in Malaysia has resulted in a whole country approach where a newly built makeshift low risk Covid-19 treatment centre was chosen to house all COVID-19 positive illegal immigrants.  In view of the desperate situation the detained illegal immigrants were in as the risks of them behaving aggressively, taking hostage, running away and escaping from the treatment centre were high this is the first time ever other governmental, non-governmental and security agencies worked alongside healthcare personnel in a biological hazard treatment centre while the clinical management was of no different than any other clinical setup in the country.   Methodology:  This is a semi-quantitative and integrated type of hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control (HIRARC) approach where it incorporates risk rating and severity rating to cover four elements, which are people, property, environment, and reputation.  Total scores range from 1 to 25 and was further categorized into low, medium and high risk in a color-coded representation.  The assessment was done for two weeks from 27th May 2020 till 11th June 2020. Result & Discussion: Four types of occupational and security hazards identified were physical, biological, psychological and ergonomics hazards.  this evaluation serves as a good planning tool in optimizing the risk mitigation measures among security personnel working in a biological hazardous environment. Physical hazards with possible violence and riot scored the highest risk while ergonomic issues had the lowest rating.  Conclusion:  The mapping combination of existing hazard, risk rating and control was able to facilitate organization to prioritise future planning.  With the fluidity of the COVID-19 pandemic, periodical evaluation is recommended to meet dynamic changes such as demands for frontliner manpower strength, the number of existing detainee patients in ward and the evolution of the COVID-19 infection itself to maintain safety and security for all.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic situation in Malaysia has resulted in a whole country approach where a newly built makeshift low risk Covid-19 treatment centre was chosen to house all COVID-19 positive illegal immigrants. In view of the desperate situation the detained illegal immigrants were in as the risks of them behaving aggressively, taking hostage, running away and escaping from the treatment centre were high this is the first time ever other governmental, non-governmental and security agencies worked alongside healthcare personnel in a biological hazard treatment centre while the clinical management was of no different than any other clinical setup in the country. This paper entails risk evaluation that needs to be considered to all the security personnel working in this centre as there was no precedent of similar situation in the country.Methodology: This is a semi-quantitative and integrated type of hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control (HIRARC) approach where it incorporates risk rating and severity rating to cover four elements, which are people, property, environment, and reputation. Total scores range from 1 to 25 and was further categorized into low, medium and high risk in a color-coded representation. The assessment was done for two weeks from 27th May 2020 till 11th June 2020.Result & Discussion: Four types of occupational and security hazards identified were physical, biological, psychological and ergonomics hazards. this evaluation serves as a good planning tool in optimizing the risk mitigation measures among security personnel working in a biological hazardous environment. Physical hazards with possible violence and riot scored the highest risk while ergonomic issues had the lowest rating. Appropriate control measures to mitigate all the potential risks were appropriately implemented through a solid multi-agencies’ collaborative effort.Conclusion: The mapping combination of existing hazard, risk rating and control was able to facilitate organization to prioritise future planning. With the fluidity of the COVID-19 pandemic, periodical evaluation is recommended to meet dynamic changes such as demands for frontliner manpower strength, the number of existing detainee patients in ward and the evolution of the COVID-19 infection itself in order to maintain safety and security for all.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic situation in Malaysia has resulted in a whole country approach where a newly built makeshift low risk Covid-19 treatment centre was chosen to house all COVID-19 positive illegal immigrants. In view of the security situation as the risks of these detainees behaving aggressively, taking hostage, running away and escaping from the treatment centre were high, governmental, non-governmental and security agencies came together and worked alongside the healthcare personnel for this treatment centre. This paper entails risk evaluation that needs to be considered to all the security personnel working in this centre as there was no precedent of similar situation in the country.Methodology: This is a semi-quantitative and integrated type of hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control (HIRARC) approach where it incorporates risk rating and severity rating to cover four elements, which are people, property, environment, and reputation. Total scores range from 1 to 25 and was further categorized into low, medium and high risk in a color-coded representation. The assessment was done for two weeks from 27th May 2020 till 11th June 2020.Result & Discussion: Risk evaluation identified four types of hazards which were physical, biological, psychological and ergonomics hazards. Physical hazards with possible violence and riot scored the highest risk while ergonomic issues had the lowest rating. Appropriate control measures to mitigate all the potential risks were appropriately implemented through a solid multi-agencies’ collaborative effort. This evaluation serves as a good planning tool in optimizing the risk mitigation measures among security personnel working in a biological hazardous environment. Conclusion: The mapping combination of existing hazard, risk rating and control was able to facilitate organization to prioritise future planning. With the fluidity of the COVID-19 pandemic, periodical evaluation is recommended to meet dynamic changes such as demands for frontliner manpower strength, the number of existing detainee patients in ward and the evolution of the COVID-19 infection itself in order to maintain safety and security for all. (318 words)