The Ankylosing Spondylitis health talk was co-hosted by Muk En Community Care Centre and Institute for Medical Research on 22nd October (Saturday) evening to raise the awareness of the public on this rare genetic disease. Symptoms such as humpback, bony spur, arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, sudden sore waist and aching back are co-related to this disease which caused by the human genetic.

Chinese are the high risk patient, however, people often misunderstand that this is old age disease. The ratio of patients suffering from this disease is 100: 6 in Southeast Asia countries. Furthermore, the age for people to suffer from this disease getting younger, famous pop star such as Jay Chow, Yu Tian and TVB actor Joe Ma are diagnosed to suffer from this disease.

There is a risk to suffer from this disease for people who have wrong sitting posture or often suffer from sudden backache regardless of whether you are at old age, mid age or young age. This disease will cause limitation to the patients’ day to day activity such as bending or turning around when the condition deteriorates, more severe condition will cause stiffness and numbness to the whole body.

The medical officer from the institute of medical research had mentioned that this disease is made known to the public in western countries which allow the patient to have early detection and receive the treatment accordingly. However, this disease is little known to Asian countries.

There was a total of 36 people from the public attended the talk and 30 of them willing to participate in the research program run by Institute for Medical Research. The research program involve taking genetic test and a simple physical test to provide a complete report. On another hand, there are a total of 23 people from the public crowd who had also willing to take the test during Love in Action 3 in 1 event. Head of Immunogenetics unit, Dr Toh Chui Lee said that the 53 test reports collected from the public is precious as it helps them to have a better understanding on the relationship between Human leukocyte antigen and the disease. The test reports also help the relevant medical team in the research to develop an effective drugs to control the disease.

You can also contribute to the medical line if you are willing to participate in this program and meet the criteria: Malaysian, Male, age between 18 to 55 years old and no autoimmune diseases. For those who are interested and would like to further explore the details of Ankylosing Spondylitis, you may contact Immunogenetic Unit, Allergy and Immunology Research Center, Institute for Medical Research, Jalan Pahang, 50588 Kuala Lumpur. Contact Number: +603-26162784