The largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries said the move would help the healthcare firm with its pan-Asia expansion strategy.

“Project cost and the amount and nature of IFC’s proposed investment cannot be disclosed at this time due to confidentiality and regulatory requirements,” IFC announced on its website, adding that the estimated date for board considerations was June 12.

IHH is the healthcare arm of Malaysia’s state investor, Khazanah. Its assets include Turkish hospital group Acibadem AS, Singapore’s Parkway Holdings, India’s Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd and Malaysia-based Pantai Hospitals and International Medical University.

The listing of IHH in Singapore and Malaysia was expected to be the fourth-biggest initial public offering in the city state’s history and Malaysia’s second-largest this year after the planned listing of Malaysian plantation group Felda Global Venture Holdings.

Southeast Asia has seen a burst of IPOs since the start of the year, despite the protracted euro zone debt crisis and the debacle over Facebook’s recent market debut.

IHH, which is expected to debut on the Malaysian and Singaporean bourses by the end of July, has started to invite approved “Bumiputra” investors to submit expressions of interest in subscribing for its shares, according to the website of Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry earlier.

Bumiputra, meaning “sons of the soil” in Malay, refers to majority ethnic Malays and other indigenous people in the country who benefit from a decades-old affirmative action policy that favours them in housing, education and business.

Premarketing is currently being held for a second tranche that will be open to institutional and other investors.

The IPO will be one of the first after elections in Malaysia that are widely expected to be held in June or July. Analysts and investment bankers have said Malaysia’s IPO pipeline has slowed ahead of the poll because of concerns of market volatility.

IFC officials were not immediately available for comment. Japan’s Mitsui & Co Ltd owns a 26.6 percent stake in IHH, Dubai-based Abraaj Capital holds 7.1 percent and Acibadem chief Mehmet Ali Aydinlar 4.2 percent. Khazanah owns the remaining 62.1 percent.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank AG and CIMB are joint global coordinators and book runners for the deal. Goldman Sachs, DBS and Credit Suisse are joint bookrunners, a source told Reuters in December.

The Sivashanta Medical Centre, which is likely to be built next year, will provide both Western and traditional medicine at affordable rates, TFA president V. Kanagasivam said.

“We are now in the midst of finalising the design and obtaining the necessary approvals to develop the medical centre,” he said, adding that they welcomed contributions from the public.

Recently, hundreds of visitors flocked to the institute’s grounds to enjoy a fun fair organised to raise funds.

Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin who launched the fair said the Government encouraged projects like the medical centre which could aid underprivileged Malaysians.

“Although the Government has already set up 1Malaysia clinics throughout the country to provide affordable healthcare, we encourage NGOs and other private organisations to help in any way they can,” he said.

There are currently 100 1Malaysia Clinics nationwide, and 50 more to be set up by December.

Visitors to a recent fair enjoyed various types of food including nasi lemak, capati, cakes, ice cream and cendol while they were treated to traditional dance performances by students of the TFA.

Among the booths set up included those offering palm-reading, fortune-telling and face painting activities.

On another matter, Raja Nong Chik announced that two multi-storey car parks would be built in Brickfields over the next year to help alleviate parking problems here.

He said the car parks, work on which will begin in the next three months, would be developed by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and the Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB).

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said patients who were not receiving optimal treatment or experiencing side effects from current drugs would be dispensed the new oral medication called Exjade.

“We are limiting Exjade to patients fitting the three criteria because it costs three times more than other drugs. Patients only need to take one dose a day compared to Desferral.

“Desferral has to be injected over a span of eight hours a day, up to five days a week. Many patients fail to observe the complicated routine and are not treated properly,” he said at an award presentation in conjunction with World Thalassemia Day.

Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder in which the body makes an abnormal form of haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. It results in excessive destruction of red blood cells, which leads to anaemia and can be fatal.

With the right drugs and blood transfusions, a person with thalassemia can live a normal life.

The Cabinet has approved an annual allocation of RM80.9mil for thalassemia treatment and a one-off payment of RM11.7mil to expand control and prevention programmes.

“This includes an additional RM31.9mil to buy Exjade for 916 paediatric patients aged between two and seven, as well as 166 new patients,” said Liow.

He said the incidence of thalassemia had been on the decrease since 2004 and attributed it to public awareness and counselling programmes by the Health Ministry.

The National Thalassemia Registry, which was set up in 2004, recorded some 192 babies born with the disorder that year, but the number has dropped to 82 in 2009.

The doctors at Rome’s Bambino Gesu hospital said the operation was carried out last month and made public this week. The baby, whose identity has not been disclosed, was kept alive for 13 days before the transplant and is now doing well.

The baby was suffering from dilated myocardiopathy, a heart muscle disease which normally causes stretched or enlarged fibers of the heart. The disease gradually makes the heart weaker, stopping its ability to pump blood effectively.

“This is a milestone,” surgeon Antonio Amodeo told Reuters television, adding that while the device was now used as bridge leading to a transplant, in the future it could be permanent.

Before the implant, the child also had a serious infection around a mechanical pump that had been fitted earlier to support the function of his natural heart.

“From a surgical point of view, this was not really difficult. The only difficulty that we met is that the child was operated on several times before,” he said.

The tiny titanium pump weighs only 11 grams and can handle a blood flow of 1.5 liters a minute. An artificial heart for adults weighs 900 grams.

Amodeo said the baby had become family and his team wanted to do everything to help him.

“The patient was in our intensive care unit since one month of age. So he was a mascot for us, he was one of us,” the doctor said.

“Every day, every hour, for more than one year he was with us. So when we had a problem we couldn’t do anything more than our best,” he said.

Doctors said the device, invented by American Doctor Robert Jarvik, had been previously tested only on animals.

The hospital needed special permission from Jarvik and the Italian health ministry before going ahead with the procedure.

For dedicated nurses, it is all about working in hospitals or clinics regardless of whether it is day or night.

The nurses not only they have to sacrifice their own family time for the patients’ well-being, but also put up with the patients’ antics, which call for great patience on the nurses’ part.

They have to not only administer medication, but also supervise the patients’ meals and clean up their mess.

Nevertheless, their sacrifices have been taken for granted, and there are some who declare that nursing is their last choice of vocation.

However, for dedicated nurses like Ramziah Ahmad, nursing is still a glorious profession.

Ramziah retired from nursing two years ago, after 36 years of service, and is now the president of the Malaysian Nurses Association.

And she is no ordinary nurse. She is highly qualified and the only nurse in the country to be awarded the ‘Knight of Charity’ medal from United Kingdom, which confers on her the title of ‘Dame.’

From teaching to nursing

Ramziah, who hails from Perlis, recalled that she first discovered her interest in nursing while working as a temporary teacher after completing her schooling in 1972.

Whenever her students fell ill, she would care for them, and the first thing that she would do is place a wet towel on a sick student’s forehead to bring down the fever.

“They became excited at this, and some of my pupils pretended to have fever just to seek my attention.

“The fellow teachers who found out about this suggested that I take up nursing,” she observed.

In fact, her father suffered from asthma, and this further encouraged Ramziah to try for a nursing career, so that one day she would be able to take care of her father.

After undergoing a three-year nursing training in Penang, she was posted to Hospital Hulu Selangor in 1976, where her nursing career officially began.

“Each day is a different story, as different patients come and go. This is what makes the nursing career very interesting, as it provides the opportunity to meet all types of people from different levels of society,” she remarked.

Ramziah is grateful for the fact that her nursing career provided her the best opportunity to care for her parents before they passed away.

In 1980, she was transferred to Hospital Pulau Pinang as a nursing tutor.

Because Ramziah was hard-working, the hospital’s matron sent her to Kuala Lumpur for a four-month course on disinfection; upon her return, she was appointed as head of the disinfection unit.

“Since then, there has been no looking back for me. I was determined to continue gaining knowledge, as the work in a hospital covers a wide area,” noted Ramziah, who obtained her nursing degree from Universiti Malaya in 1996.

To the International Stage

Her husband and two daughters understood her quest, which has helped her attain many achievements in her career.

By the time she retired as a nursing instructor with the Health Management Institute, she had trained more than 7,000 nurses in patient management.

“To emerge as the best leader, knowledge is essential,” remarked Ramziah, who has received the Health Ministry’s excellence service award thrice, in addition to the ‘Sri Kandi Cemerlang’ award from the Malaysian Nurses Association.

Ramziah even spent her own money to attend conferences within and without the country to gain more knowledge in her field.

This knowledge made her the recipient of numerous invitations to present working papers, often relating to career development in nursing.

She was even the Pacific-region board member for the Commonwealth Nurses’ Federation, in conjunction with the biennial Commonwealth Nurses Meeting held in Botswana, Africa, in 2009.

“I have attended numerous courses, seminars and conferences at the international level, with the only aim of sharing information and experience,” said Ramziah, who holds a master’s degree as well as a doctorate in Complementary Medicine from Sri Lanka.

The future of Nursing

A nursing career calls for high levels of commitment, a good understanding of the job and the willingness to continue learning.

These are the secrets of Ramziah’s success.

“I’m grateful for the fact that my knowledge and contributions have been recognised locally and overseas,” she observed.

Dr Dame Ramziah, who is also the dean at the Universal Science of Colour Faculty (FUSC), noted that Malaysia needs more trained and highly qualified nurses with first degrees, master’s and PhD degrees.

According to her, the knowledge will provide nurses with the confidence and know-how to offer the appropriate care, in line with the fast-evolving world of medical technology.

Her advice for those who want take up nursing was to “ask yourself whether you really want to be a nurse, as it calls for lot of sacrifices and commitment.”

“It is an honourable vocation,” she added.

They will train and support Malaysian pathologists and help improve the use of pathology testing to achieve better healthcare.

The delegation will also take part in the Malaysian College of Pathology’s annual scientific meeting, starting on June 8.

Prof Khong attended Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur before leaving to complete his secondary education and medical studies in Britain.

After a short spell back at Oxford, he moved to Adelaide, Australia, where he is currently practising at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

The “far-off target”, as he puts it, is scaling the slopes of Mount Everest in the Himalayas and make it to the summit. Four years on, his dream to challenge the world’s highest mountain is close to fruition.

“It does not really matter whether I can achieve my goal. I knew that the training journey itself (involving other mountain climbs) would bring a lot of experiences. But, now, it may actually become reality,” said Dr Kumaran, 28, over the phone last week from Nepal, where he is setting up a medical clinic.

He arrived in Nepal on March 11, with the aim of establishing a proper medical facility in one of the poor sherpa villages before his expedition begins.

Dr Kumaran took a year off work at TTSH’s Accident & Emergency Department to prepare for his expedition, and for the expedition itself.

From his climb, he hopes to raise $50,000 for the Tan Tock Seng Hospital Community Charity Fund, which provides financial support for the lower- income group and the sandwiched class. To date, about $23,000 has been raised through corporate sponsorships and donations.

“I hope to raise funds for the middle-income families who don’t qualify for the subsidies and are unable to afford their medical expenses,” he said.

In the 1.5 years of his housemanship stint he has served so far, Dr Kumaran said he witnessed first-hand the plight of the sandwiched class – those who did not qualify for financial grants and were unable to cope with a family member’s medical bills.

“It takes just one family member to fall ill to a chronic disease like cancer and an entire family’s savings goes bust. This is where the fund comes in,” he said.

Last April, Dr Kumaran climbs Mount Everest with 29 other climbers, each with a sherpa guide. He is the only Singaporean in the team. The climb to the peak takes about 1.5 months, he said.

“This climb represents the figurative mountains in (the patients’) lives and the daily uphill struggles they go through.”

His mountain-climbing passion allegedly has cost him $136,000. He plans to fund his trips by getting sponsorship and working part-time between climbs.

Now, he tends to outpatients as a doctor, while as an adjunct lecturer he engages in disability research at the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology.

Kumagaya talks about his career path.

The Yomiuri Shimbun: As a child, how did you feel about your disability?

Kumagaya: I naturally felt this is who I am, so I never found it hard to live like this. In my everyday life, my mother used to do everything for me. But she was very strict when it came to my daily physical therapy, and I found that stressful.

Q: What were your school days like in Yamaguchi Prefecture?

A: I liked school because I didn’t have to undergo rehab there. I went to primary and middle schools near my house, so every day my mother drove me to and from school. She also used to come to school at every break to ask me if I needed to go to the restroom.

Q: As a child, how did you see your future?

A: I had this constant fear, thinking about how I’d live without my parents. So I was always thinking about what I could do. I liked math, so I began thinking about becoming a mathematician when I was in high school.

Q: So you left your family home to attend college at the University of Tokyo?

A: Initially, my mother was going to come with me. But then I thought if she did, she would never have let me go for good. Using some passages from the will author Ryunosuke Akutagawa wrote for his child, I convinced her [not to come with me]. The will basically said something like: “Even if your mother opposes you, you should never bend your resolve. Later it will be good for your mother, too.”

Q: Were you able to live on your own so suddenly?

A: In the beginning, I couldn’t sit on the toilet in my apartment on my own, and once I soiled myself. That day, I called my friends for help. But the most private part of my life was revealed to the public, and as a result, that made me think, “Yes, things will be all right.” Now, I can ask passersby for assistance to get me to the toilet.

Q: What made you become a doctor?

A: I joined a group of people helping those with cerebral palsy. Having met so many people, my interests in people and society expanded.

Having dealt with the hearing-impaired, I came to realize the existence of invisible disabilities. Simply to learn more about it, I went to medical school. But in the course of my training, I met pediatricians whom I respected and decided to become a doctor myself.

Q: Wasn’t it difficult for you to practice as a doctor?

A: As I can’t move like able-bodied people do, I altered a stethoscope and other instruments, including the one for examining the inside of patients’ mouths, specially for myself. Sometimes, child outpatients and their parents are surprised to see me in an electric wheelchair. But if I talk to them for a minute, I can build trust with them.

Having said that though, I’m still asking myself whether it’s OK for a disabled person like me to practice as a doctor.

Q: Could you tell us about your research activities?

A: I became an adjunct lecturer two years ago. Now except for three days a week when I work in a private clinic, I engage in my studies. Among the invisible disabilities I’m interested in, I’ve been working on my research based on interviews with autistic people.

The cornerstone of my study is the idea of independence for the disabled. Society shouldn’t exclude disabled people, blaming them for their disability. I’d like to point out the problems are with society [not with the disabled].

I’d love to continue my studies from this viewpoint, and hope to give something back to the medical world.

Azithromycin has been on the worldwide market since the 1980s, but the study in the New England Journal of Medicine is the first to document serious heart risks – up to a 2.5-fold higher chance of cardiovascular fatalities – in the first five days of treatment compared to another or no antibiotic.

The comparison was based on an examination of patient records in the southern US state of Tennessee from 1992 to 2006.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University compared about 348,000 prescriptions of azithromycin to millions of records from people who were not treated with any antibiotics or who received amoxicillin, a similar medication that is considered heart safe.

The analysis found there were 47 more deaths per million in those taking azithromycin compared to those on amoxicillin.

When researchers examined patients already at high risk for heart problems, the chance increased to 245 additional cardiovascular deaths per million in the azithromycin group compared to the amoxicillin takers.

While the relative number of fatalities was low, researchers said the findings offer new information about possible dangers that doctors and patients should consider.

“We believe this study adds important information on the risk profile for azithromycin,” said lead author Wayne Ray, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University.

“For patients with elevated cardiovascular risk and infections for which there are alternative antibiotics, the cardiovascular effects of azithromycin may be an important clinical consideration.”

The Croatian pharmaceutical company Pliva first patented azithromycin in 1981, and later struck a worldwide deal with Pfizer to sell the antibiotic worldwide. Pfizer branded the treatment Zithromax and Zmax.

Azithromycin is a macrolide antibiotic that works by stopping the growth of bacteria.

Side effects may include skin rashes, itching, swelling, difficulty breathing or swallowing and rapid, pounding or irregular heartbeats, according to the American Hospital Formulary Service.

He said Sabah and Sarawak topped the list for hepatitis B in the country and attributed it to, among others, the influx of foreigners in both the states.

Kelantan, he said, recorded the highest number of cases for hepatitis A.

“Hepatitis B can be transmitted from an infected mother to her child during the birthing process, sharing of drug injection needles or for blood transfusion,” he added.