Compulsory Medical Check-Up For Aliens From Next Month, Says Dr Chua

JOHOR BAHARU, July 7 (Bernama) -- Beginning next month, it is compulsory for foreign workers to undergo medical check-up within a month after their arrival in the country, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said Thursday.
Currently, he said, they are required to go for medical examination one year after they had arrived in Malaysia.
He said the move to bring forward their medical tests was to facilitate early detection of communicable diseases among foreign employees and to deport them to their homeland before they passed on their disease to Malaysians.
"This is to maintain the locals' health status. We fear the current requirement to undergo medical examination after a year was too long because by then they will have close contacts with the locals and possibly they may have passed on infectious diseases like Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, leprosy and other ailments," he told reporters after opening the national-level health clinics advisory panel convention which was also attended by his deputy Datuk Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad.
Currently, foreigners intending to work in Malaysia are required to undergo medical check-up in their homeland before arriving and also in Malaysia about a year later after they had started work.
Last year, he said, Fomema Sdn Bhd (Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency) entrusted with the task to carry out medical tests on foreign workers identified 25,069 of them to be unfit to work in Malaysia.
He said the number of foreign workers found to have infectious diseases was 2.8 per cent of the overall 909,273 foreign workers who underwent medical examination with Fomema.
Of the 25,069 foreigners with health problems, he said, 12,548 were found to be suffering from Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis (3,079), Syphilis (2,110) and AIDS-causing HIV virus (337)
Indonesians were the most found to be unfit to work, followed by Pakistanis and Myanmarese, he said.
"What is more worrying is the increasing number of foreign workers in Malaysia found to have contracted various diseases since several years ago which can harm Malaysians' health.
"The 2.8 per cent of foreign workers with health problems in the country last year is an increase compared to 2.6 per cent in the previous year," he said.
A total of 8,562 of the 716,152 foreign workers who underwent medical check-up were found to have been infected with various diseases, he said.
Dr Chua said the Health Ministry's random health checks on foreign workers at entry points found 3.54 per cent of them, who were supposed to have a clean bill of health as was certified by the health authorities of their countries of origin, were detected to have health problems.
He said the foreigners with health problems were those who entered the country legally and did not include those who sneaked into Malaysia illegally who might also be carriers of communicable diseases.
Following the influx of foreign workers to Malaysia, the people were now exposed to several infectious diseases like Tuberculosis which had been controlled at one time, he said.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 Tuberculosis cases were detected in the country last year, he said.
Chua hoped private clinics authorised to carry out medical tests on foreign workers would do a quality job by strictly complying to the stipulated conditions.
From May last year to April this year, he said, 138 clinics and X-Ray centres have been suspended by Fomema from conducting health checks on foreign workers for various offences like not adhering to the procedures laid down.
No confirmation of the foreign workers' identity undergoing the medical tests was among the main offences of clinics and X-Ray centres carrying out the tests, he said.
There were also cases of foreign workers falsifying their health reports by producing the health records of others, he added.