Wong Kon Ken

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia | ukm · Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology

Background Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common infection in women of reproductive age group because of vaginal dysbiosis. The impact of BV during pregnancy is still not well defined. The objective of this study is to assess the maternal-fetal outcome in women with BV.Materials and MethodsA prospective cohort study over one-year duration was conduc...

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a notorious gram-negative bacterium that has become a globalpublic health concern owing to the emergence of multi- and pandrug-resistant strains. This study sought todetermine the antibiotic susceptibility profile of P. aeruginosa in a tertiary medical center from Malaysia. Materials and Methods: Each isolate’s...

Introduction Gardnerella vaginalis (GV)-associated bacterial vaginosis is recognised for its detrimental effects on pregnancy resulting in poor obstetric and neonatal outcomes. There is limited knowledge of the effects on placental histomorphology following GV infection in pregnancy. We investigated the effects of GV infection on the placenta, part...

Objective Pregnant women with bacterial vaginosis due to Gardnerella vaginalis (GV) infection presents with a wide-ranging disease symptomatology. We speculate this may be due to interaction that varies between host immune response and the pathogen. We studied the oxidative burst in polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL)s from maternal blood (MB) and...

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of microbial contamination of multi-user preserved ophthalmic drops (POD) in Ophthalmology Outpatient Clinic (OOC), to compare the rate of contamination between the dropper tip and the residual contents in the bottle, and to identify the contaminating organisms. Methods: This...

The looming severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a long-lasting pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) around the globe with substantial morbidity and mortality. N-acetylcysteine, being a nutraceutical precursor of an important antioxidant glutathione, can perform several biological functions in mammals a...

Bullous systemic lupus erythematosus (BSLE) is a rare autoimmune blistering condition. A 10-year-old boy presented with generalized vesiculobullous skin eruptions and was initially diagnosed with bullous disease of childhood. Indirect immunofluorescence testing for antinuclear antibodies (ANA) was positive, with a homogeneous pattern and a titre of...

Background: Gardnerella vaginalis (GV) is most frequently associated with bacterial vaginosis and is the second most common etiology causing intrauterine infection after Ureaplasma urealyticum . Intrauterine GV infection adversely affects pregnancy outcomes, resulting in preterm birth, fetal growth restriction, and neonatal pneumonia. The knowledge...

Background: Gargling had been reported to have significant roles in the prevention and treatment of respiratory tract infections. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of regular gargling to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in the oropharynx and nasopharynx. Methodology: This pilot, open labeled, randomized, parallel study compared the effect of...

Bacterial culture and biochemical testing (CBtest) have been the cornerstone of pathogen identification in the diagnostic microbiology laboratory. With the advent of Sanger sequencing and later, next-generation sequencing, 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing (16SNGS) has been proposed to be a plausible platform for this purpose. Nevertheless, usage...

Background: Gargling had been reported to have significant roles in the prevention and treatment of respiratory tract infections. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of regular gargling to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 in the oropharynx and nasopharynx. Methodology: This pilot, open labeled, randomized, parallel study compared the effect of...

Tuberculosis is a public health problem that can cause extrapulmonary infections, including urogenital infections. We report here the case of a 29-year old female with a 2-year history of dysuria and hematuria treated with multiple courses of antibiotics with urine cultures all negative. She was then diagnosed with IgA nephropathy based on a renal...

Background: Preterm neonates are at a greater risk of hospitalization for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection and have significantly worse hospital outcomes compared with full-term neonates.

16S rRNA targeted sequencing has been proposed for pathogen identification in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Nevertheless, this technique requires bioinformatics expertise. We investigated the utility of the B.E. Patho, a “plug-and-play” bioinformatics suite developed by Bioeasy Sdn. Bhd., for rapid analysis of 16S targeted sequencing reads...

Gardnerella vaginalis (GV) is a facultatively anaerobic gram-variable bacillus and is the major organism involved in bacterial vaginosis. GV-associated bacterial vaginosis has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes include preterm parturition and subclinical chorioamnionitis. Inflammatory response induced by GV presents paediatric problems...

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC), a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, is affecting more than 1.36 million people every year. It is a well-known multifactorial disease, and the aetiology is a complex interaction between genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors. However, there has been a general consensus exists that the compo...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotyping is important for treatment and epidemiological purposes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of AmpliSens® HCV-1/2/3-FRT kit in comparison to sequencing method for genotyping. A total of 17 samples collected from December 2009 to January 2011 were analyzed. Reverse transcriptase polymerase...

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important cause of acute respiratory tract infection in infants and young children. Phylogenetic analysis for RSV in Malaysia has not been reported before. We investigated the genetic features of RSV in respiratory specimens from March to August 2011 with molecular methods. From a total of 130 throat sw...

Objective: Respiratory infections represent a major public health problem worldwide. The study aimed to determine the prevalence of respiratory syncytial and influenza virus infections and analyzed in respect to demography and clinical perspective. Methods : The specimens were processed by cell culture and immunofluorescent assay (IFA) and real-tim...

Objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotyping is important for treatment and epidemiological purposes. The objective was to determine HCV genotype and their associations with certain risk factors at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Methods: A total of 89 samples were collected from December 2009 to January 2011. Demographic...

Objectives: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children worldwide. Its detection by viral culture and immunofluorescent assay is time consuming and has low sensitivity. The objective of the study was to develop In House Light Cycler Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction for Rapid Detection of Respirator...

Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Influenza A virus has moved into the post-pandemic period since August 2010. Various laboratory diagnostic methods are available to assist patient management. The study aimed to assess influenza trends in this centre during and post-pandemic and the performance of rapid influenza antigen diagnostic tests (RIDT).

Haemodialysis patients are at risk of infection by hepatitis C virus (HCV), suggestive of nosocomial spread. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and predisposing factors of HCV infection and evidence of outbreak among haemodialysis patients.

Objective: A study was undertaken to identify the HIV-positive cases from suspected patients reported to University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) from January, 2006 to December; 2009. Methods: Cases were identified and confirmed by three established sero-diagnostic tests: Micro particulate Enzyme Immunoassay, Passive Particle Agglutina...

We evaluated the performance of four rapid influenza diagnostic test methods (RIDT) compared to real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR), for the detection of the novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV) in August 2009. A total of 270 respiratory specimens were tested with rRT-PCR, where 74 of these were tested...

An epidemiological investigation was carried out on patients reported to Hospital University Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) suspected to be carriers of Epstein-Barr virus from July 2005 to June 2006. A total of 402 patients' sera were analyzed by Enzyme Immunoassay with Kit Enzygnost® by automated BEP ® 2000 instrument. Of these 91.3% were found to car...