Foreigners Account For 30 Per Cent Of TB Cases

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 (Bernama) -- Foreigners account for about 30 per cent of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the country which totalled 15,170 last year.
Dr Fuad Hashim, principal assistant director of the TB/Leprosy Control Unit in the Infectious Diseases Control Branch of the Health Ministry, said most of the infected foreigners came from Indonesia and the Philippines, which are classified as TB "high burden countries" by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He said the government now required compulsory screening of foreign workers for TB before they were given work permits to check the spread of the disease in the country by foreigners.
Dr Fuad said people suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney problems risked being infected by TB.
Patients who took steroids for a long period and the elderly were also prone to the disease, he added.
Dr Fuad said the occurrence of TB also mirrored the trend in cases of HIV/AIDS which weakened the body resistance of patients.
In 2004, he said, 1,263 of the 15,429 TB patients were found to have HIV/AIDS.
According to him, since the screening of TB patients for HIV/AIDS began in 1990, the number of TB patients found also to have HIV/AIDS had been rising yearly.
Dr Fuad said Malaysia is classified by WHO as a TB "intermediate burden" country.
Besides Indonesia and the Philippines, the other Asean countries in the "high burden" category are Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand.
In Malaysia, Sabah has the highest incidence of TB while the Federal Territory of Labuan has the lowest.
Malaysia will observe National TB Day early next month.