Publications by authors named "Eddy Seong Guan Cheah"

Diabetes and obesity are chronic diseases that are a burden to low- and middle-income countries. We conducted this systematic review to understand gene-diet interactions affecting the Southeast Asian population's risk of obesity and diabetes. The literature search was performed on Google Scholar and MEDLINE (PubMed) search engines independently by four reviewers who evaluated the eligibility of articles based on inclusion criteria.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The carriage of bacterial pathogens in the human upper respiratory tract (URT) is associated with a risk of invasive respiratory tract infections, but the related epidemiological information on this at the population level is scarce in Malaysia. This study aimed to investigate the URT carriage of , , , , and among 100 university students by nasal and oropharyngeal swabbing. The presence of , and was assessed via swab culture on selective media and PCR on the resulting isolates.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Pneumococcal pneumonia is the leading cause of under-five mortality globally. The surveillance of pneumococcal serotypes is therefore vital for informing pneumococcal vaccination policy and programmes. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) have been available as an option in the private healthcare setting and beginning December 2020, PCV10 was incorporated as part of routine national immunisation programme (NIP) in Malaysia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The adoption of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) has significantly improved pneumonia prevention, but middle-income countries (MICs) are falling behind due to limited financial support and implementation issues.* -
  • A systematic review of 21 eligible studies found that lower middle-income countries (LMICs) have a notably higher PCV uptake (71%) compared to upper middle-income countries (UMICs) (48%), largely due to challenges following their graduation from GAVI support.* -
  • Key barriers identified include lack of data on disease burden, insufficient local expertise in economic evaluation, and costs associated with PCVs, with suggested solutions involving cost-effectiveness analyses, better disease evaluation, and ongoing vaccine impact monitoring.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF