We are proud to introduce the Malaysian Society of Allergy and Immunology (MSAI) as our Member Society Highlight of the month of April and an active member society of APAAACI. The APAAACI leadership including myself, Prof. Jiu Yao Wang, Prof. Yoon Seok Chang, Prof. Amir HA Latiff and Dr. Iris Rengganis participated as speakers and in the APAAACI Executive Committee meeting. We are grateful for the excellent organization and hospitality of the MSAI leadership and organizers. We look forward to continued collaboration with MSAI and wish them continued success.
Prof. Ruby Pawankar, MD, Ph.D, FRCP (UK), FAAAAI
President, APAAACI
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MALAYSIAN SOCIETY OF ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY (MSAI)
The Malaysian Society of Allergy and Immunology (MSAI) was established in 1997 by a small but dedicated group of doctors and healthcare personnel. The group shared the view that whilst Malaysia had undergone rapid and remarkable economic development and advances in the medical field, there remained a lack of conjoint inter-disciplinary fraternity dealing with Allergy and Immunology.
On December 13, 1998, President of EAACI, Prof S. G. O. Johansson officially launched the MSAI. Thereafter, MSAI has regularly held their Annual Congress and Exhibition on Allergy and Immunology of a high international standard. MSAI also conducts regular roadshows nationally, public forums and talks to disseminate awareness and knowledge on Allergy and Immunology. The society has published its newsletter since 2003, and in recent years, has begun to highlight other immunological diseases, in particular primary immunodeficiencies (PID) since 2010 with the formation of a subcommittee on Training and Credentialing of Clinical Immunology and in 2013 an international conference was held on PID in Malaysia and a PID patient workshop with IPOPI formong MyPOPI in 2014.
MSAI is a distinguished society member of Asia Pacific Associaton of Allergy Asthma and Clinical immunology (APAAACI) and the World Allergy Organization (WAO). In 2016, MSAI successfully organized the 10th APAAACI Congress conjoined with APAPARI in Kuala Lumpur, officiated by the Minister of Health, Malaysia. MSAI has also integrated Joint Scientific Conferences within its Annual Congress with other APAAACI societies in the region since 2013 including ACIS (Singapore) - 2013 & 2015, AAIAT (Thailand) - 2014 and ISAI (Indonesia) - 2018.
The most recent 19th Annual Congress of MSAI held from 5-7 April 2019 was held in collaboration with APAAACI with the APAAACI Allergy Week 2019, the World Allergy Week 2019 and GA2LEN for (the first ever GA2LEN-MSAI Allergy School in Malaysia ) with an attendance of more than 250 participants from Malaysia and other SEA countries.
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The highlight of the Congress was the APAAACI Allergy Week 2019 with the theme "Influence of Climate Change and Environmental Pollution on Allergic Diseases". An APAAACI-MSAI Plenary session was held on 5th April 2019 on this theme, besides an inauguration session which saw the soft launch of the Asia Pacific Charter of Air Pollution and Allergic Diseases under the leadership of APAAACI President, Professor Ruby Pawankar. The inauguration also highlighted a video message from Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, World Health Organization and Former DG that reflected the world organisation's vision on the same concern of Climate Change and Environmental Pollution on global health of the world population and supporting the efforts of APAAACI for the White paper and related action. Two APAAACI Symposia conducted on the same day with several APAAACI leadership and the overall presence of APAAACI to stage these three sessions contributed to the success of the MSAI 19th Annual Congress.
Dr. Amir Hamzah Abdul Latiff
MBBS, MMed (Paeds), MRCP (Ire), DipRCPath (Imm), AM (Mal), FACAAI, FAAAAI
President, MSAI
2nd Vice President, APAAACI
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