KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 — The National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) today received a medical asset donation worth RM6 million known as Forward Anesthesia Surgical Trauma (FAST) from the Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters of the United States (US).
It was handed over by US Embassy chargé d’affaires Manu Bhalla to Deputy Chief of Army Lt Gen Datuk Tengku Muhammad Fauzi Tengku Ibrahim during a ceremony at the Tuanku Mizan Military Hospital here.
Tengku Muhammad Fauzi said FAST was used for the Malaysian Field Hospital operation during a humanitarian mission in Turkiye last February.
“The 52 items in FAST are medical equipment used for performing surgeries on patients requiring full or local anaesthesia,” he said at a press conference here.
Meanwhile, Manu said FAST helps to strengthen the relationship between civilians and the military and enables both countries to cooperate in addressing humanitarian crises in Malaysia and globally.
“The US Embassy greatly values our strong relationship with NADMA and Malaysian Armed Forces Health Service that has only been further strengthened since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020,” he said in his speech at the ceremony.
Manu said the US and Malaysia have had a long history of collaboration on public health issues, including identifying emerging infectious diseases and threats through their work in Sabah.
“Furthermore, under USAID’s (US Agency for International Development) global PREDICT programme, the US government provided US$200mil (RM941.6mil) for research in areas around the world to include Borneo for more than a decade to detect and better understand emerging infectious diseases of zoonotic origin.”
“Currently, the National Institute of Health funds the Emerging Infectious Diseases — Southeast Asia Research Collaboration Hub that works to be an early warning system for outbreaks,” he added.
