Page 6 - NIH Bulletin Vol 19, January-June 2022, Entering the Endemic Phase: Nurturing Ideas in Healthcare
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Bulletin National Institutes of Health, Malaysia  Vol 19 • January - June 2022






                            MEASURES TAKEN IN FACING THE PANDEMIC BY
                            OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY &


                                    HEALTH UNIT (OSH)






          The Occupational Safety & Health Unit (OSH), National   Sampling of nasopharyngeal swab & oropharyngeal swab
          Institute of Health (NIH), is responsible for ensuring the   Covid-19 (NPS & OPS) for RT-PCR COVID-19 (Figure 1) test
          safety and health of all employees at NIH. Before the   was done by drive-thru method (Figure 2) for employees
          world and Malaysia  was hit by  the COVID-19 pandemic,   and family members involved.
          OSH NIH activities focused on occupational safety and
          health promotion program activities in the workplace   As of 31  December 2021, a total of 106 NIH employees
                                                                     st
          such as chemical and fire safety, Hepatitis B and Influenza   have been confirmed positive, 854 people have been
          Immunization program, Tuberculosis screening and so on.  instructed to undergo home surveillance & monitoring
                                                              / Home Surveillance Order (HSO); all of them were
          Throughout the year 2021, the activities carried out by OSH   closely  monitored  by the OSH  unit,  while a  total  of 2110
          NIH are categorized as COVID-19 related activities and non-  NPS & OPS samples were conducted for close contact
          Covid-19  related  activities.  Among  the COVID-19-related   screening and symptomatic cases. The data were analyzed
          activities are investigating COVID-19 positive cases as well as   and presented (Figure 3) and (Infographic 1) at the
          the detection of close contact with COVID-19 positive cases   NIH Occupational Safety & Health Committee (DOSH)
          in the workplace to help reduce the workload of the District   meeting every 3 months.
          Health Office (DHO).




















              Figure 1: Sampling procedure for nasopharyngeal swab and
               oropharyngeal swab COVID-19 for RT-PCR COVID-19 test.





















               Figure 2: Sampling procedure for nasopharyngeal and   Figure 3: Number of positive COVID-19 cases among
                      oropharyngeal swab via drive-thru.                         NIH staffs in 2019.


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