Av Influenza Surveillance

Last Thu I received a call from Unc Ash, " Ei, Pamela. Come to DSV (main faculty hall) at 1.45pm. Emergency. Must come." It was 1.40pm.

So I quickly returned all the patient files to the front office (clinic registrar) and headed to DSV. Thr, my class was told to join the Avian Influenza Surveillance Team, and we were to stay at Institut Pengurusan veterinar at Cheras, probably for a duration of 1 week. It was not a good news, (at least to me) for I had already lined up the list of "things to do when I go back KB". But it's ok.

"Berkhidmat untuk negara!" "Mari kita berjuang!" I heard my classmates cheering. A-hem.

So there we went on the very same day, ate and slept in the same place. There were more than 60 DVM5 (my class) who went there, and about 40++ staffs from all around Malaysia, which summed up to be more than 100 people helping the nation to fight. We were divided into 30++ groups (at least 4 ppl/group), and on the next day, each group gathered the stuffs and headed to different directions. We carried the swabs (ear cotton), transport media, masks, gloves, disinfectants, water, food, nets, and other stuffs in 4-wheels.

We were supposed to visit the area, watch for any bird or chicken, and take at least 1 cloacal (anus) swab from one bird from a population. The swabs carry the mucus or epithelia that will tell us whether it's positive or negative for HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza strain virus). So we'll send the swabs to the labs later lo.

On the first day (Fri) my group surveyed Sentul, where we covered La Salle, Convent Sentul n other nearby areas within my assigned 1km surveillance area. The next day, miraculously, my group was assigned to Kepong area, good enough, it covered my home n neighbourhood, including my 2ndary school (SMKB). I took some time off to visit my family, and the feeling was undescribable. How i missed home. It's been 4weeks since i last went home. Watching Toffee crying terribly for me, and I can't even hug him (for I consider myself "contaminated", coz i had direct contact with chickens) was the worst feeling.

Thank God, the survey is now over, and I'm back to faculty. Hopefully all the results for the swabs will be negative. God willing.