MALAYSIANS KINI You have probably seen them before: Viral postings on social media peddling dubious pills, ‘miracle’ water, and suspicious ‘medical advice’.

Since June 3 however, there is a new Facebook page aimed at tackling medical myths in Malaysia, as well as misconceptions about the medical community itself.

Dubbed Medical Mythbusters Malaysia (M3), the group is run by 46 members from various medical specialties and now has a modest following of over 53,000 Facebook users.

Among those working behind the scenes at M3 is its co-founder Dr Ahmad Firdaus Mohd Haris, 32, a father of two and a medical officer based at a government clinic in Gopeng.

He shared his story with Malaysiakini in an email interview in August.

I AM JUST REALLY MAD at how much damage pseudoscience can do to my patients and the community as a whole. For me, pseudoscience is a threat to public health.

When I was a house officer, I had to perform a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a patient in a lift. I was on my way to accompany the patient to the dialysis room when he suddenly lost consciousness.

What affected me most was, he was discharged a few days prior to the incident. The patient wanted to seek treatment from an alternative healer for his kidney failure. He had a prior history of poorly controlled diabetes mellitus and hypertension.

I was the one who pleaded with him not to sign the ‘Discharge at own risk’ form. I tried to counsel the family members to advise him to stay. But he was adamant on his decision.

On that fateful morning when he died, I was the one on call. His body was swollen and he had difficulty in breathing due to fluid overload. His kidney failure was worsening. He could have made it if he had gone for a dialysis sooner.

He just had to listen to a quack doctor.

THE WEIRDEST MYTH I have encountered is the ‘First Aid for Stroke’ myth. It was widely circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp. It never seems to die off. Every time someone busts the myth, it will resurface again in three to six months. It is totally mind boggling how people would believe in such a myth. To make it weirder, the myth was circulated in Bahasa Indonesia.

Apparently, the first thing to do when you see a person with symptoms of stroke is to take a needle and prick it at the fingertips of the victim. Let blood flow out, then the symptoms will resolve.

This can worsen effect of the stroke actually. A delay in seeking treatment may cause more damage to the brain. The sooner reperfusion therapy is instituted, the outcome would be more favourable.

I’M A PLAIN OLD IPOH BOY. I was raised in a medium income family. My father was an immigration officer while my mother is a teacher. They are both retired now.

I am the youngest of four siblings. I was the only one destined to become a doctor. My mum wanted at least one of us to be a doctor.

Since I was little, my mum would always tell me that I had to become a doctor. I had to represent my extended family (cousins included) to be the first to become a doctor. I would stop short of saying I was forced though. It was more of being brainwashed.

However, there was one incident that strengthened my determination to study medicine.

During my second year of medical school, my mum had a pulmonary embolism. A blood clot had obstructed the blood circulation to her lungs.

Pulmonary embolism is associated with a high mortality rate. I would say, it was a miracle that she survived not once, but twice in a span of a few days.

That incident made me realise how important was for me to make it through medical school. I had to make sure that I empower myself with the right skills to treat them at times of need. Having said, I make it a point to treat any patients the same way that I would treat my parents.

Every individual deserves the same level of treatment.

MEDICAL MYTHBUSTERS MALAYSIA was initially called the Medical Avengers Initiative. Obviously, someone watched too many Marvel movies.

The idea was first mooted during the launching of a book titled ‘Diagnosis Apokalips’ in March 2016.

It was a chance encounter between (Diagnosis Apokalips co-authors and contributors) Dr Mahyuddin Mohamed, Dr Mohd Syamirulah Rahim, Dr Khairul Hafidz Alkhair, (the blogger and medical officer) MOfrust, and myself.

All of us had one thing in common: Actively debunking medical myths and sharing medical facts on social media.

During our short meet, we noted that some of the anti-vaccine and home birthing groups were very coordinated to get their ideologies across. They would constantly post updates and stories to make others believe in their cause.

Thus, it was decided that medical professionals should have a platform to provide facts and bust myths on social media.

The idea remained stagnant until on May 31, 2016, when MOfrust started recruiting members from his Facebook page.

I contacted him straight away.

I helped set up the Facebook page and screened through the backgrounds of all the interested individuals.

Before we settled for Medical Mythbusters Malaysia, there were suggestions for Anti-Virals and M-Men (yes, it was that lame).

THERE IS NO PARTICULAR APPROACH TO THE TOPIC HIGHLIGHTED, but we do respond to any viral issues that are related to health and health care staff. Once an issue is highlighted, M3 members are free to write their responses.

Before an article is published on our Facebook page, the material will be scrutinised by our active members. Any typing errors will be ironed out; facts will also be reviewed by our team of experts.

Most of the topics published on M3 will have a link of credible sources. We have put ourselves in a position whereby the public will get credible information based on evidence. Not just based on hearsay or inconclusive evidence.

THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF MEDICAL MYTHS. The first are honest, innocent myths.

These are myths that have been passed down from generation to generation. One such example: if a person takes a bath late at night, he or she will get paru-paru berair. I can’t really provide a good explanation or translation but it can be loosely referred to as pneumonia.

However, in real medical terms, paru-paru berair is fluid overload causing pleural effusion or pulmonary edema (fluid inside the lungs). There has been no concrete evidence to link the two.

This kind of myth does not cause any harm to anyone. You won’t die whether you continue to bathe at night or not. Most likely, someone’s parent cooked this myth up to save on the household’s water bills.

The second kind are the harmful with hidden agendas kind of myths.

Most of the time, pseudoscience is just a tool for someone to market their product. They will create facts out of the blue, without any scientific evidence.

They will claim that their product can treat 1,001 medical illnesses. All one has to do is to completely stop taking their medications and purchase these pseudoscience products. The public will start to think that their antihypertensive medications and diabetic treatment is the cause of their kidney failure, blindness and heart attack, even though it is most commonly attributed to the poor control of their diseases.

To add salt to the wound, they will tell their ‘victims’ that doctors are withholding all this knowledge about their pseudoscience because doctors are puppets of a new world order, out to destroy the world.

THESE MYTHS ARE A BURDEN TO PUBLIC HEALTH. Most of the patients will come back to healthcare facilities with irreversible damage to their organs. The medical staff will have to clean up the mess caused by the myths.

As a result, it burdens the nation’s health care system with preventable diseases.

WE GET AN AVERAGE OF THREE TO FIVE MESSAGES IN OUR INBOX IN A DAY (the number may spike to 10). Most of the messages we receive are from individuals seeking medical advice on their medical condition.

However, M3 strictly does not provide any medical consultations online as this can have dire consequences. It would be too risky as we have no way to assess the actual condition of an individual.

Doctors can’t provide optimum care without utilising all five senses.

THE NEXT STEP is for M3 is to formally register Medical Mythbusters Malaysia as an NGO within this year.

As an NGO, M3 can be more structured and have presence outside of Facebook. Perhaps one day, we can organise events and programmes to enhance the Malaysian public’s participation in managing diseases.

We have plans for a book on medical myths as well as conducting road shows and events to disseminate proper medical information to the public.

We are also in the process of training our members on ways to fully utilise social media and to review medical journals systematically to enhance M3.

I’VE BEEN GETTING A LOT OF SUPPORT FROM MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY, especially my wife and kids. My wife even attended the launching of M3 in Shah Alam. She’s been very understanding and even chips in to help with some of the topics highlighted by M3 (she’s a medical doctor as well).

As for my parents, they have not embraced the digital age (they refuse to). They have no idea about Facebook and don’t have a clue about Medical Mythbusters Malaysia. However, they are supportive of my efforts to educate the public on medical myths.

I have friends who are very sceptical at first when I mooted the idea. They didn’t think that this effort would make any changes. They thought this was just a half-baked effort.

I am very happy to have proven them wrong.

Malaysians Kini is a series on Malaysians you should know.

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