...FYP...

"Prevalence and Risk Factors of Intestinal Protozoa among Students of One Primary School in Indera Mahkota, that is my FYP's title". Then my friends said,"ooo..means, the samples you deal is stool, right?". "Yup," I answered... They made humming sound and nodded their heads... Many other people gave different expressions and perceptions when i was talking about my FYP...Some of them would just laughting... Some of them would say, thats good! Never mind...it just matter before i really starting my project yet.. =)

Lets talk about my project..
It about epidemiologic study of a kind of infectious disease..which is parasitic infections among human. Prevalence is the amount of disease already present in a population... it indicates the number of of existing cases in a population...

Objectives of my research are:

1) To estimate the prevalence of intestinal protozoa among children in one school in Indera Mahkota city

2) To determine the risk factors those contribute to the infection of intestinal protozoa in the school

Intestinal protozoa that significant for my study are, Entamoeba histolytica, Cryptosporadium sp., Giardia lamblia, Isosporidium belli, Cyclospora cayetanensis, and members of phylum Microsporidia. Intestinal protozoa are passed through fecal-oral route, so infection widespread in area with anadequate sanitation.

Generally this protozoa will cause symptoms such as gastrointestinal distress, flatulence, watery diarrhea, dysentery (bloody diarrhea), nausea, malaise and many other symptoms. In detecting the presence of the protozoa, stool sample is taken because their cyst and trophozoite (stages of protozoa lifecycle) are passed in stool.

The target population in my study is students in urban area. Indera Mahkota city is chosen due limited information regarding the health status of children in this area. Usually people tend to think that they are healthy if they feel not sick and rarely or never admitted in hospital. In my study i expect that, the prevalence of the infection is low among the students in this area. With the result obtained, I hope it will reflect that socio economic and lifesyle is closely interrelated with the infection of intestinal protozoa infection.

Actually I had started collecting samples last semester. The time I chose Sekolah Kebangsaan Tunku Azizah's students as my population of interest. However, out of 600 students I only can get 16 samples. Most of their parents do not allow their children to become part of subjects of study... So I need to restart my study from the beginning in this semester, again. This time I'l choose Sekolah Kebangsaan Indera Mahkota Utama as my study area...

I remember, once, my Supervisor, Madam Norazsida Ramli, asked me..."So, up to this point, what you have learnt?". I just said that, we cannot expect everything will run smoothly, in this study, it is not matter on dealing with sample only, but its about dealing with people...who always has perception and emotion... what we need to do, just be patient...my supervisor nodded her head, and she added, dealing with people means we are dealing with their emotion..so we have to respect them, we can force them if they cannot cooperate with us... So, this is what research about. Hmm, I just only about at the beginning... I do really hope this semester will promise lighter opportunity for me to do the best in my FYP, insyaALLAH...and I know that ALLAH swt will never leave me alone...