Infectious Disease Service

Type of services offered:

i. Inpatient Care

The Divison of Infectious Diseases provides specialized inpatient care in Ward 4U, Menara Utama, UMMC, for patients with tropical infections (such as dengue fever, malaria, and leptospirosis), prolonged fever (pyrexia of unknow origin/ undifferentiated fever), HIV, and sexually transmitted infectious (STIs). We also offer antimicrobial consultantions and stewardship advise across the Department of Medicine and other departments within the Faculty of Medicine. Our team also manages and advises on strategies to prevent hospital-acquired infections across all specialities. We work closely with the Infection Control Department (ICD) to manage and prevent hospital outbreaks. In addition, collaboratively with the Pharmacy Department, we provide the following services.

1) Antimicrobial Stewardship Rounds (conducted weekly):

- Plastic Surgery Unit

2) Penicillin Allergy Assessment and De-labelling: This service provides thorough assessments for patients with reported penicillin allergies to determine the accuracy of the diagnosis. Through clinical evalutions and supervised oral challenges when appropriate, patients are assessed to confirm or de-label penicillin allergies safely. This initiaitves aims to reduce unnescessary avoidance of penicillin and promote optimal antibiotic use, improving patient outcomes and supporting antimicrobial stewardship.

3) Post-splenectomy vaccination consultation : This consultation service provides tailored vaccination guidance for patients following splenectomy. It includes a comprehensive assessment of vaccination needs to protect againt infections, such as pneumococcal, meningococcal, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) infections. Patients receive individualized immunization plans and education on infection prevention to support long-term health and reduce the risk of overwhelming post-splenectomy infctions.

4) Outpatient antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) consultation.

(https://farmasi.ummc.edu.my/ummc-on-line-antibiotic-guideline)

Our unit provides outpatient services for genreal infectious disease care. These include HIV/STI and HIV preventive therapy, such as Pre and Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEp & PEP). We also offer Telemedicine services for stable HIV patients who meet specific eligibility criteria.

We have also embarked on starting the ID Wellness Clinic, which is a service that currently provides mental health screening to all people living with HIV who are interested, along with psychological care and follow-up of newly diagnosed individuals living with HIV, provided by a nurse counselor. Additionally, those with mental health dignoses, including substance use disorder, receive counseling from a psychologist. In the future, we aim to expand our services to include screenig for cognitive health, metabolic diseases, and women's health.

iii. Daycare

Our services during this session include:

• Patient Review Service: A clinic dedicated to reviewing patients on PrEP, providing STI services, and offering travel and immunization advice. This service also follows up for patients recently discharged from the ward with acute or subacute illnesses requiring further assessment. 

• Daycare Procedure Service: A clinic offering elective medical procedures, including lumbar punctures, bone marrow aspiration, and trephina biopsies.

Our Clinics at Universiti Malaya Medical Center (UMMC)

Educational Efforts

1. ID Journal Club : Held weekly on Mondays. 

This session includes teaching for medical officers, critical appraisal of newly published papers, and mortality and morbidity meetings.

2. Radiology conference : Held weekly on Thursday.

This conference features interactive discussions between the members of the Infectious Disease unit and the Radiology department. Interesting and complex cases are reviewed, focusing on imaging studies to enhance diagnostic and management strategies.

3.HIV Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) Meeting : This runs monthly.

The HIV Multidisciplinary team comprises physicians from the Infectious Diseases Unit, Geriatricians, Endocrinologists and Nephrologist, an Infectious Disease pharmacist, and a Social Worker. Each session involves 2 cases identified from the ID clinic that require multidisciplinary input to provide a more holistic care plan for the patient with complex issues and reduce the need for multiple clinic visits, which may reduce adherence to medical care. During there sessions, a two-way exchange of knowledge occurs between the ID team and other specialities to improve everyone's knowledge and skills of comorbid conditions and aging in people living with HIV.

- World AIDS Day (yearly)

5. MY Antimicrobial Stewardship Course in collaboration with MOH, MSIDC, MSIDC AMS Interest Group and MyICID. Please click HERE for more information.

6. Writing team for Hospital guideline and protocols related to infectious and emerging diseases, i.e., COVID, Mpox, etc.

Collaboration with the Psychiatry department to provide teaching on managing common mental health issues and prescribing antidepressants by ID physicians.

Workshops

• Antibiotic Masterclass
• HIV updates
• Dengue Workshop
• Tropical Medicine Workshop