Dr. Musa bin Mohd. Nordin

Dr. Musa bin Mohd. Nordin

PRE-CONVENTION WORKSHOPS: 4 – 5 Sep 2018

Please arrive in Amman, Jordan by evening of 3 Sep 2018

 

SCIENTIFIC CONVENTION: 5 – 7 Sep 2018

5 Sep 2018: Registration: 2.00 - 8.00 PM

Opening Ceremony: 4.30 – 6.00 PM

6 – 7 Sep 2018: Scientific Convention: 8.30 AM – 6.00 PM.

 

VENUE: Convention Center, 5th floor, Islamic Hospital, Amman-Jordan.

 

HOTELS: Nearby to Islamic Hospital. Details later.

 

ABSTRACTS: Submit to Convention Scientific Committee. Deadline 15 July 2018

 

SITE SEEING PROGRAM: Details later.

 

E-MAIL: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Report from our advisor, Dato' Dr. Musa who is currently in Cox Bazaar with the Field Hospital team. He joined our volunteers Dr. Jalila & Dr. Shamsinar together with our local & international partners at our mobile clinic in Thangkali.

 

If you wish to contribute to our missions :< Persatuan Perubatan Islam Malaysia (IMAM)
CIMB ISLAMIC 
8600 703 709
Swift code: CTBBMYKL
Label "Rohingya”
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‘Charity Begins With You’

 

FIMA-ICR-IMARET-CSBD-FH Mobile Clinic

4 Dec 2017

 

1. We had a very busy baby clinic today deep inside Tangkhali. 7 day old twin brothers delivered at home assisted by a visiting nurse. Mother had a little bit of hypertension but both babies are healthy.

 

2. Healthy 23 days old baby girl. Home delivery assisted by family members.

 

3. 10 months old orphan child. Both parents shot dead by Burmese army. Escaped with grandparents 3months ago. They walked for 3 days.

 

4. Dr Shamsinar cuddling a 12 day old healthy baby boy. Neonatal jaundice the least of their worries unlike Malaysian mums :)

 

5. First rohingya lady wearing glasses. Many probably have eye issues but cannot afford glasses :|

She is 73 yrs old. She has 10 living children. 2 shot dead by Burmese army.

 

6. Meet Shamal and Shamil :D

Identical 5 year old twin boys. Home delivery in Burma which is the norm. With help from ICR International Consortium for Rohingya, namely Al-Khidmat Foundation we plan to train 500 birth attendants.

 

7. Preparing for minor surgery @ Mobile Clinic. Dr Syed CSBD orthopedic surgeon assisted by new found friends backpackers medical team from UK & Australia

 

8. Green stick fracture of forearm which required a cast @ FH. Immobilized with modified tape prior to transfer. Our mobile clinic was then overwhelmed with 420 patients! So we requested our UK & Aussie friends to transfer, who readily obliged! Authentic moments of collaboration & friendship. Loads of these moments on the ground!

 

9. Dr Shamsinar & Dr Jalila becoming Rohingya kids for a brief moment. They joined in psycho-spiritual exercises and were rewarded with cookies :)

 

FIMA-ICR-IMARET-CSBD-FH Mobile Clinic 

3 Dec 2017

1. A long walk & climb to the hill top where our clinic is perched. One must be fit ok to do mobile clinics.

 

2. 60 year old frail lady (as old as me). Only weighed 35 kg. Her husband was shot dead. Burmese army gun shots missed her. She escaped with her 2 children walking 4 days from Burma to Bangladesh. I shared my lunch with her!

 

3. The Dream Team. Excellent partnership between FIMA, ICR, IMARET, CSBD & Field Hospital Malaysia.

 

4. The unsung rohingya heroes who carried the many boxes of medicines, chairs, tables. Ibrahim the guy showing his hand is my efficient translator and scribe. We salary them which means a family of 7-8 members is supported financially. 

 

5. My first & favorite baby in our Field Hospital (FH). AB 1 yr old, 8 kg who had food poisoning. I personally fed her ORS (oral rehydration solution) which she finished in 10 minutes - I don’t even feed my own cucu or patients in DSH:) She made my day; in-spite of the sweat, tiredness, body aches, thirst & hunger.

 

6. A 10 year old girl, 16 kg only. She was dehydrated with AGE (acute gastroenteritis) and required intravenous fluids.

 

7. Another favorite is this 17 day old baby who was delivered in a low risk birthing centre. 3 kg baby. I did a full top to tail neonatal examination. Alhamdulillah! Sihat wal afiat!

 

2 Dec 2017

IMARET-FIMA TEAM III

6th Mobile Clinic (Report by IMARET)

@ Thengkali Refugees Camp, Ukhiya District

Even though we operated with only 1 pediatrician that is our beloved Dr. Musa, but the work and undivided effort from our IMARET doctors and CSBD brothers are no less remarkable.

A total of 379 pt benefited from today’s clinic

23 pregnant ladies were screened and alhamdulillah they did not have any obstetric complications. Despite the absence of our ObGyn Consultant Dr Fauziah today, Dr. Jalila did a great job of managing the scan clinic.

 

We had a few interesting cases today:-

1. A late stage basal cell carcinoma

2. A measles case 

3. A healthy baby girl who was safely delivered in this camp 5 days ago. She weighed approximately 3kg, both mother and baby are in great condition alhamdulillah. 

4. A case of generalised body ache post assault by a burmese army on an 18year old girl, who is unable to walk due to extreme pain. 

5. These cases were referred to our Malaysian Field Hospital.

Our pharmacy today was managed by our “Rohingyan pharmacist” brothers, with the supervision from Dr.Imran, one of our CSBD doctors.

The view and scenery of the deeper parts of Thengkali camp was astounding. This land is indeed blessed, housing the persecuted Rohingyas escaping the genocide in their birth land.

Do your part, donate and together we help our brothers and sisters.

 

IMARET ladies Dr Shamsinar & Dr Jalila & CSBD doctors & Field Hospital Malaysia @ our 27th Mobile Clinic aka Forward Medical Teams FMT

Home delivery @ 3 kg. Clean bill of health. Mum well too. Alhamdulillah

 

This 5 day old baby made it all worth it! The climax of our mobile clinic today :)

 

Our dispensary managed by Rohingya “village doctors”

 


Our oldest patient 90 year old. 14 children. For a change, all survived with her. Some paid 20K Takas - RM 1K to escape the genocide. Mubarak our translator is excellent with logistics & translations!

 

Confirmed case of measles. Will be notified to EWARS - Early Warning And Response Systems. The healthcare cluster meets every Wednesday to share information & coordinate our health programs.

 

All children being accessed & immunised to prevent measles and cholera outbreak

 

Dr Jalila did the obstetric clinic today with our portable ultrasound machine.

 

We had to walk long distances & cross a river to access this village! They are deprived of basic healthcare having crossed over 1-2 months ago!

 

1 Dec 2017

Today must be our biggest mobile clinic!

1 psychiatrist & 5 physicians from CSBD ( Charitable Society of Bangladesh Doctors)

1 paediatrician from FIMA/ICR (International Consortium for Rohingya)/ Field Hospital

1 OBGYN & 2 volunteers from MyCare

2 physicians from IMARET

1 physician & 1 logistician from Field Hospital Malaysia.

4 Rohingyan interpreters

3 Rohingyan “village doctors” who dispensed the drugs.

A few Rohingyan boys helped carry our drugs, equipments etc

 

We travelled even deeper into Thangkali requiring us to walk longer distances to access our clinic which was perched on a hill top

 

Our first of many many pregnant ladies had a missed abortion on ultrasound

In total 35 ladies had a thorough OBGYN exam including ultrasound scans. By then our ultrasound power had exhausted and no electricity was available for charging.

 

Our psychiatrist did individual counselling and also spoke to the large numbers of men in the musolla just prior to Friday prayers. Then he did a group therapy with the children who enjoyed his antics and the cookies which we distributed.

It was not just about accessing healthcare to the most marginalised among the refugees - 26 mobile clinics since the refugee exodus at end Aug 2017. But also ensuring we provided quality medical services.

 

Our heartfelt gratitude to your continuous moral & financial support to our humanitarian medical relief at the Bangladesh-Burma borders. Thank you AirAsia 

Foundation for sponsoring the flights for our two doctors!

We welcome your financial contributions. The funds will help us sustain our mobile clinics.

It looks like the porcine conundrum is making its rounds yet again.

 

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2017/07/24/medical-practitioners-affected-by-halal-debate-over-vaccination/

 

Suffice to begin the narrative by quoting a verse each from the Quran and the Hadiths which sums up the compassionate and humane nature of Islam.

 

Allah SWT says in Surah Al-Hajj 22:78: “And strive for Allah with the striving due to Him. He has chosen you and has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty.”

 

And an authentic tradition narrated by Aisha (RA): “If given an option between 2 actions, the Prophet (SAW) would surely choose the easier one, as long as it is not sinful.” (Bukhari & Muslim)

 

And we firmly believe this spirit and approach pervades the corpus of the jurisprudence of facilitation (Fiqh Taysir). And at no point it time does it blemish the belief nor practise of the faithful because the Muslim scholars have anticipated these challenges of modernity and have reiterated, “Allah will bless the believer who recognises and engages with the new world, yet remains true to his religious values.”

 

History will testify that the Muslim scientists dominated virtually all aspects of knowledge and research from 600 – 1700 AD. Az-Zahrawi (930-1013 AD) the father of modern surgery was pioneering new surgical instrumentations when Europe was restricted by a religious edict in 1163 AD which instructed as follows; “All forms of surgery must be stopped in all medical schools by all surgeons.”

 

Is it any wonder that Martin Kramer, an American Historian wrote; “Had there been Nobel Prizes in 1000, they would have gone almost exclusively to Muslims.”

 

Somehow, the Muslims lost it along the way but the following hadith continues to inspire Muslims to catch up on lost ground and rejuvenate their quest for leadership in the sciences; “A word of wisdom is the lost property of a Muslim. He should seize it wherever he finds it.” (Tirmidhi)

 

It is in this vein that the contemporary Muslim scholar, Syakh Yusuf al-Qaradhawi has said to the effect; “Two areas of human activities (muamalat) which requires cutting edge edicts (fatwa) are economics and medicine.”

 

Hence, it is not surprising that the many Councils of Jurisprudence, all over the world, eg European Council of Fatwa & Research (ECFR) chaired by Syakh al-Qaradhawi,  has deliberated profusely on the many issues related to medicine and biotechnology. These Councils like the ECFR were kept informed of the latest and best practices in medicine by regular meetings with the likes of the Islamic Organisation of Medical Sciences (IOMS) based in Kuwait.

 

The issue of the use of substances of porcine origin in food and medicine is an archaic one. Nonetheless, the ECFR has comprehensively dealt with it, when deliberating the permissibility of the use of Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) which is manufactured using porcine based trypsin. This was published in their 11th Session of the ECFR held from 1-7 July 2003, in Stockholm.

 

The ECFR argued as follows:

a) what God forbids is the partaking of pork, and trypsin has nothing to do with pork

 

b) even if we admit that trypsin is forbidden, the amount used in preparing the vaccine is negligible, if one applies the rule that “when the amount of water exceed 2 qullah (216 litres)”, impurities no longer affect it”

 

c) supposing that trypsin is unclean, it is thoroughly filtered, that it leaves no traces whatsoever in the final vaccine

 

d) in case the three arguments forwarded are still insufficient, the haram (forbidden) is made permissible in cases of necessity.

 

 

In their concluding remarks they emphasized, “The Council urges Muslim leaders and officials at Islamic Centers not to be too strict in such matters that are open to considered opinion and that bring considerable benefits to Muslim children, as long as these matters involve no conflict with any definite text.”

 

Such is the latitude of rationale and magnanimity of our religious scholars (fuqaha) in addressing the bigger picture of child health, child survival strategies and the advocacy of life saving vaccines.

 

Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe and fatal diarrhea in infants and young children. Virtually every child in the world would have been infected with the rotavirus  (RV) by the age of five years. Globally, rotavirus gastroenteritis kills 527,000 (475,000-580,000) children under five and is responsible for millions of hospitalizations and clinic visits each year. Ninety-five percent of rotavirus deaths occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia. Muslim majority countries, Pakistan and Nigeria are 2 of 5 countries which together contribute up to half of the global RV diarrheal deaths in 2008.

 

The manufacturing process of the two oral vaccines (OPV and RV) are similar, involving the use of minute amounts of trypsin which is later removed by ultra-filtration. Therefore, the pivotal judicial edict of the permissibility of OPV, by the European Council for Research & Fatwa can be similarly applied to the RV vaccine.

 

RVGE  continues to scourge our youngest and most vulnerable, killing more than 1,200 children under five each day. The human tragedy is that RVGE is a vaccine preventable disease (VPD) and many of these deaths can be averted by universal mass vaccination with the RV vaccine. RV vaccination offers the best protection against severe rotavirus diarrhea, and have been shown to save lives in countries which have incorporated RV vaccines in their National Immunization Program (NIP).

 

About 90 countries in the world have introduced RV vaccination in their national immunization program (NIP). Muslim countries which have included RV vaccination in their NIP include Pakistan, Morocco, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Jordan,

 

The RV vaccine has been in use in Malaysia since 2006. Since it is not part of the Malaysian National Immunization Program (NIP), it is mainly utilized in the private health sector.

 

A study of under-5 mortality in Malaysia in 2006 showed that there were 1,699 deaths. Deaths due to diarrhea was the number 3 cause of deaths, contributing 83 deaths (4.9%), after congenital anomalies (25.1%) and pneumonia deaths (9.2%). This is unacceptably high for a country moving towards a developed nation status. Many of the developed nations in Europe, US, Canada and Australia have included the RV vaccine in their NIP.

 

Discharge records from government hospitals showed that the cumulative risk of RV related disease by 5 years of age was 1 in 61 for hospitalizations and 1 in 37 for out-patient clinic visits. The out of pocket cost associated with RVGE admission was estimated at RM 106-799 in 2009,  which was 26% of the studied household income. The mean parental day work loss associated with RVGE admission was 4.8 days. All of these data suggest that the burden of RV disease is considerable and would be a substantial drain on the nation’s health expenditure.

 

At present there are no other medicines or substances which can act as an alternative to the present two oral RV vaccines. These have been studied in virtually all regions of the world and proved to be effective, safe, cost-effective and are life saving.

 

It behoves Muslim healthcare providers as well as religious leaders to propagate this information especially its similarity with the polio vaccination program and work to increase the utilization of the RV vaccine generally and specifically its inclusion in the NIP of Malaysia.

 

Lessons can be learnt from a precedent, an earlier fatwa issued on the use of OPV which is similarly manufactured using trace amounts of porcine trypsin. The European Council of Fatwa and Research (ECFR) chaired by Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi and consisting of numerous renowned scholars in the Muslim world, when allowing the use of OPV added that; “the hesitation of some parents to have their children immunized with this vaccine (OPV) poses a risk to Muslim children alone. At the same time, it gives an unfavorable image which portrays Muslims as hindering a process that aims to eradicate, with God’s permission, the existence of this disease on earth once and for all. After all, this eradication cannot be complete while there is even one child on earth carrying the virus.”

We have learnt and read fatwas from religious scholars in Malaysia which unlike the ECFR and IOMS et al are individual-centric, random, ill-researched and anecdotal in nature. Their lack of grasp and understanding of the new science have made them ultra-conservative, restrictive and prohibitive in their religious edicts.

 

The Federation of Islamic Medical Associations (FIMA)  has endeavoured to mainstream evidence based medicine (EBM) of the highest quality and which should henceforth  dictate our best clinical practices. And importantly, it is sanctioned as Shari’ah compliant by the highest authorities of jurisprudential scholarship among Muslim scholars world-wide. This excellent collaboration of the best brains in medicine and jurisprudence has lightened the burden upon the Muslim Ummah (community). It has not only truly embraced the jurisprudence of facilitation (Fiqh Taysir) but also the jurisprudence of realities & priorities (Fiqh Waqi’ah) and the jurisprudence of balance (Fiqh Wasatiyah).

 

We urge the religious authorities to take cognisance of the invaluable heritage of medical fatwas that is before us and not attempt to reinvent the wheel. They should instead incorporate these shari’ah compliant best clinical practise into the corpus of our nation’s jurisprudence in medicine.

 

Dato’ Dr Musa Mohd Nordin FRCPCH (UK)

Chairman, Federation of Islamic Medical Associations (FIMA) Advisory Council

 

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