Materia Medica Malaysiana

Immigrants bring threat of disease, says Chua

Malaysia faces a threat from emerging and re-emerging infections from illegal immigrants and migrant workers, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said.
For example, 2.8% of the nearly one million foreign workers examined last year were found to be unfit, he said.
“Of those found unfit, 50% were suffering from hepatitis, 12.3% from tuberculosis, 8.4% from sexually-transmitted diseases and 1.3% from HIV,” he said in his speech at the High Level Forum on Health Millennium Development Goals in the Asia Pacific in Tokyo yesterday.
Dr Chua said Malaysia was looking into the needs of people living in more remote areas such as the orang asli and those in Sabah and Sarawak in terms of reducing maternal and child mortality.
“We are looking into ways to reduce further our already-low rates and the differentials between states,” he said.
He added that training of staff on neonatal resuscitation had started.
“This can bring down our infant mortality rate even further,” he said, adding that 99% of all deliveries in Malaysia were “safe deliveries.”