Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics in children. Materials and Methods: This study was based on a prevalidated questionnaire distributed to 205 families in the United Arab Emirates, during the period of January-October 2014, on self-medication of their children with antibiotics. Data were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel^® and expressed in terms of both counts and percentages. Results: The response rate was 92.7% most respondents were well educated, and with university degrees and 45 (23.7%) participants were working in the medical field or attained a medical background. The majority of children were between 1 and 12 years of age, and the family's monthly income ranged from moderate to high for most of the participants. Community pharmacy was the main source (152, 80%) of antibiotics, and the main source of information was the pharmacists, followed by doctors and medication leaflets. Reasons for self-medication with antibiotics included previous experience with symptoms (100, 52.6%), and minor illness (67, 35.3%). The majority (141, 74.2%) of participants was aware of consequences of antibiotic misuse and bacterial resistance. The most commonly utilized antibiotic for self-medication was an amoxicillin - clavulanic acid combination. Antibiotics were most commonly used without prescription for respiratory symptoms including sore throat (104, 54.7%), cold/flu (85, 44.7%), and runny nose/nasal congestion (56, 29.5%). Conclusion: Antibiotics are still used for conditions which are viral in origin and parents, misconceptions about antibiotics call for organized extensive efforts to increase public awareness of the rational antibiotic use.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate pharmacy students' adoption and behavior related to social networking sites (SNS) in general, and to Facebook in particular. In addition, this study aimed to explore faculty's adoption of Facebook from students' perspectives, as well as students' willingness, to "friend" their faculty. Materials and Methods: A 19-item questionnaire was administered to a sample of pharmacy students (n = 195) at a School of Pharmacy. The survey included three sections. All questions were closed-ended. The first section had general adoption questions for different SNS. The second section had questions with regard to students' behaviors and attitudes related to Facebook in particular. Demographic data was collected in the third section. Results: One hundred ninety-three pharmacy students completed the survey for a response rate of 99%. The top three social media websites with the most frequent usage were Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube respectively. Nearly, all the students (93.8%) had existing Facebook profiles. More than 70% of students had 200 or more Facebook friends at the time of data collection. Given the widespread adoption of Facebook, the majority of the respondents used it for social rather than professional or educational purposes. Even though 46.6% of participants thought that at least 40% of their faculty members use Facebook, slightly more than half of the participants (54.4%) refused the idea of "friending" their faculty. After conducting logistic regression, the predictors of "friending faculty" on Facebook among pharmacy students were the number of Facebook friends that a student has and race or ethnicity. Conclusions: There has been a huge growth in the number and the use of SNS. Students, if they choose to, can take advantage of this revolutionary communication tool to advance professionally. However, the majority of students still choose to use Facebook for social purposes rather than professional or educational purposes.

Background: Ebola virus disease (EVD) is at the moment a global pandemic disease. The importance of public awareness and alertness toward the disease cannot be underestimated since it is an important step to prevent unnecessary anxiety, fear, as well as an excessive reaction that accompany such anxiety. The main objective of this study is to assess the current level of knowledge and perception of students and staff at Universiti Sains Malaysia toward EVD. Method: A cross sectional survey method was used, and a self-administered questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The questionnaire consisted of three sections. Section A with 6 questions pertaining to demographic data of respondents', Section B had 20 questions pertaining to respondents knowledge of cause, symptoms, transmission, prevention, and current affairs about EVD. Section C had 12 questions pertaining to respondents' perception toward EVD. Respondents in this study included both students and staff. Results: From the 520 questionnaire (400 among students and 120 among staff) distributed, only 458 were retrieved (380 from students and 78 from staff). Results showed that majority of the students were female (163; 66.0% for undergraduates, 71; 53.4% for postgraduate and 50; 64.1% for staff). The majority of the students first learned about EVD from the internet (193, 80.4%; 102, 81.0%; and 43, 58.9%, respectively, for undergraduate, postgraduate, and staff). This study found that the current level of knowledge about EVD among respondents is low (median knowledge score <50%). However, postgraduate students possess more knowledge than undergraduate and staff (median score 46.2%, P = 0.002). In addition, staff respondents from the university hospital (clinic) were found to possess more knowledge than other category of staff (median score = 61.5%, P = 0.002). Furthermore, sciences based students were found to have more knowledge than arts and social sciences based students (median score = 46.2%, P < 0.0001). Most of the respondents; 136 (56.7%), 52 (41.3%), and 30 (41.1%), respectively, of undergraduates, postgraduates, and staff have a misconception that there are foods that can effectively cure or prevent EVD. The internet was found to be the most commonly acceptable method for provision of education about EVD among undergraduate, 64 (27.7%) and postgraduate students, 32 (26.2%). A combination of internet, TV shows and awareness campaign was found to be the most acceptable way to provide EVD education among staff (26, 41.9%). Conclusion: It was concluded that the current level of knowledge among students and staff regarding EVD is low and there is a need to raise awareness about EVD among the university population.

Malaysia has a two-tier health care system consisting of the public and private sectors. The Ministry of Health is the main provider of health care services in the country. The private health care sector provides services on a nonsubsidized, fee-for-service basis, and mainly serves for those who can afford to pay. For financing health care two types of health insurances are available currently: Private and employee based (aka SOCSO). SOCSO and Employee Provident Fund provide some coverage to private-sector employees. There are several challenges in pure Bismarckian model (private insurance etc.) like smaller portion of total population will be "economically active," international competition to attract firms, and maintain/increase employment will put downward pressure on labor taxes. How to sustain universal coverage in this context? In a population setting where unemployment is high informal sector, payroll taxes will not be a major source of funds. However, it is possible to create a universal health financing system by transforming the role of budget funding from directly subsidizing provision to subsidizing the purchase of services on behalf of the entire population. The integration of services between the public and private sector is very much needed, at a cost the people can afford. At present, there is no national health insurance scheme in place. Although there are many models proposed, the main question that the policymakers need to be aware of is that of the equity of access to holistic health services for all Malaysians.