Materia Medica Malaysiana

Malaysians Exposed To Burden Of Eight Main Illnesses Last Year

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak said Tuesday night many Malaysians were exposed to the burden of eight main chronic illnesses last year.
He said a Health Ministry study last year showed that these illnesses, in the order of the more severe to the less severe, were heart ailments, mental illness, stroke, road accident injuries, cancer, asthma, chronic lung disease and diabetes melitus.
He said the people were also exposed to contagious diseases such as dengue and HIV or Aids.
"Based on the same study, it is estimated that on the average an individual will fall ill about 41 days in a year," he said when opening the Fourth National Health Conference 2005, here.
He said the burden of the illnesses would translate into losses for the nation of about RM46 billion (based on the per capita income in the Gross Domestic Product) this year and RM56 billion in 2010.
Najib said sufferers of heart ailments, stroke and diabetes melitus, all in the category of non-contagious illnesses, shared the risk factors -- meaning they were overweight, subjected themselves to a low level of physical activity, consumed alcohol and underwent stress.
He said all these chronic illnesses could be overcome with one special rehabilitation programme.
"Therefore, the challenge facing the nation was to determine a suitable method of modifying the high-risk behaviour that can prevent an illness in the initial stage," he said.
Najib said many health indicators had shown an improved performance that the nation had attained since independence.
"(Among them) the life expectancy of both the sexes, which is 71 years for men and 75.5 for women," he said.
"The crude death rate has also dropped, from 12.4 for every 1,000 live births in 1957 to 4.5 in 2002," he added.
The infant mortality rate, he said, had also dropped, from 75.5 for every 1,000 live births in 1957 to 6.2 in 2002, Najib said.
As a comparison with several Asean countries, the World Health Report 2004 of the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that the infant mortality rate for every 1,000 live births for Malaysia was eight compared with 39 for Indonesia, 27 for Thailand and 28 for the Philippines, he said.
This improvement in the level of health showed that the medical services system in the country had achieved a state of maturity and more determined efforts should be made to improve the status further, he said.