Successful Annual Congress More to Come…
Good Day and Salam Sejahtera to esteemed members of MPA Friends and Colleagues! Happy Deepavali to all my Hindu friends and Malaysians. May the Divine Light of Deepavali spread into your lives in Peace, Prosperity, Happiness, and Good Health. Hope it is not too late.
Thank you!
I would like to thank all of you for participating in our 43rd MPA Annual Congress and the 15th APPSGHAN from 12 to 15 October 2022 at the Sabah International Convention Centre, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. This was the first hybrid conference after the pandemic lockdown and attracted 480 in-person and 100 virtual delegates. The pre-congress, as well as the main congress programme, were superb with the active participation of delegates. This is the plus point of the physical meeting, which we have been missing for the last two years. Congratulations to Prof Lee Way Seah and his team of paediatric gastroenterologists for putting up an excellent scientific programme. The faculty dinner on the cruise was the icing on the cake. Our overseas speakers were entertained by local singers and good food. Well done, Dr Fauziah, for arranging the social event. The industry was also happy to be back physically with their booths and thank you to our PCO for handling all the requests before, during and after our conference with such calmness and composure. The success of our 43rd MPA Congress and 15th APPSGHAN would not have materialised without the hard work put in by Prof Lee, MPA organising committee and the local team led by Dr Fauziah and Dr Alvin. Kudos!
Next 44th MPA Annual Congress…
My dear friends, our 44th MPA Annual Congress will be back in KL, and it will be a local event. We have already planned an exciting scientific programme. Please block your calendars on 12-14 October 2023. We will be coming out with more information in our next BMPA issue.
Ongoing programmes…
For the last year, we have been having our series of lectures via webinar, and we hope that in 2023, we will be back to having more physical seminars. MPA’s Positive Parenting is now 20 years old and still very active, churning information to the public. Thank you, Datuk Zulkifli, for your tireless work over 20 years. Similarly, IMFeD, another offshoot from MPA, is ten years old this year. The IMFeD team is planning to have more series of lectures educating both healthcare personnel and parents on the importance of stunting and good nutrition. I would like to extend my gratitude to the team of Immunise4Life for their continuous education of MOH healthcare workers about vaccination and vaccine hesitancy. MPA is also bidding for the 12th Asian Congress of Paediatric Infectious Diseases 2026. We hope to host this prestigious event after a lapse of 22 years. Thank you for supporting MPA and its events, and I hope you will continue to support our events and advocacy for equitable child health care. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (I hope it is not too early to wish.) Thank you.
Selva Kumar Sivapunniam
President 2021-2023
selvakumar.sivapunniam@gmail.com