Sir Peter Barter visits IMR | Minister launches broadband | PNGIMR delegation visit NARI | Directors directions | EPO project update | Update on PCV project | IMR Goroka get training on DMSys | Staff attend workshop in Malasia | New Staff | Students complete honours | This quater in picture | Gone for studies | Five staff graduate from DWU | Social Research Cadetship program | Malawi HIV/AIDS delegation visit Goroka | Message of Hib vaccie to PNG | Don Lewis revisits PNGIMR | Information for health workers for Hib vaccine | Dual visit Professor M J Cardosa's lab | Michael Alpers library news | IMR women celebrate IWD

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STAFF ATTEND WORKSHOP IN MALAYSIA

PNGIMR Laboratory Manager Mr Matthew Omena reports on his trip this year to Malaysia with Senior lab technician Mr Sauli Bebes.

Matthew Omena and Sauli Bebes with staff from the Institute of Health and Community Medicine, Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak who attended the workshop

The purpose of our trip to Sarawak, Malaysia was to attend a “Hands-on training workshop on Surveillance of Human Enterovirus 71 (HEV 71)” at the Institute of Health and Community Medicine, Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak.

The training commenced on February 12 and ended on February 16.

At the training workshop, we had hands-on training on methods for detection of enterovirus; specifically using molecular biology approach.

This is detection of human enterovirus using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).

The seminar presentations were made on following topics during the training workshop:

1) Introduction to APNET (Asia-Pacific Enterovirus Surveillance Network)
2) Methods for enterovirus detection: A molecular biology approach
3) Enterovirus in the communities of Sarawak
4) Ten years of hand, foot, mouth disease (HFMD) surveillance in Sarawak
5) Using the APNET website and
6) Polio Surveillance in PNG (which was presented by Mr Sauli Bebes of PNGIMR).

The Director of PNGIMR, Professor Peter Siba endorsed our attendance to the training workshop with the intent of expanding the Enterovirus surveillance in the Asia Pacific region to Papua New Guinea.

The training workshop was funded by Wellcome Trust and facilitated by the Institute of Health and Community Medicine, Universiti Malaysia (UNIMAS) Sarawak.

Wellcome Trust paid for Mr Bebes and my travel and accommodation.

With endorsement from our Director, who is a co-investigator, we will embark on a preliminary investigation to determine the prevalence of human enterovirus 71 (HEV 71) in PNG with our collaborators at UNIMAS and Professor Peter McMinn of the University of Sydney

(Read Sauli Bebes report on page 22)