Materia Medica Malaysiana

Check on foreign workers' medical status: "KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet has decided to set up private companies to monitor the medical examinations of foreign workers in their home countries following complaints of falsification of health certificates, said Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng.
He said the companies were required to ensure that the workers underwent the mandatory medical checks, including X-rays and laboratory tests, required by the Malaysian Government.
�The companies will be set up before the year end in consultations with the Home Ministry,� he told reporters yesterday after receiving a RM100,000 contribution from Pharmaniaga Bhd for sponsorship of the SMI Phoenix Award.
Pharmaniaga managing director Azhar Hussain handed over the mock cheque to Chua for the award, to be bestowed on companies that had staged dramatic recoveries following the 1997 financial crisis at the SMI Recognition Award ceremony on Oct 3.
Chua said the ministry was implementing the new system to prevent unhealthy workers from coming into the country.
He was commenting on a private television report on Tuesday that 90% of the foreigners in Malaysia identified with diseases were legal workers who were in the country for the first time.
The network quoted Fomema�s chief executive officer Dr Mohamed Haniffa Abdullah as saying that the workers� health problems were only discovered when they were sent for health examinations after one year.
Chua said the ministry had received reports that some of the foreign workers had obtained health certificates from clinics in their home countries without undergoing the mandatory checks while some had obtained false certificates.
Chua said 235,362 foreign workers came into the country last year, of whom 13,000 were chosen for random medical screening on arrival.
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