Most TB sufferers are locals: Health Minister

Star: NIBONG TEBAL: Of the 17,506 cases of tuberculosis reported last year, only 14.2% involved foreign workers.
The bulk of those infected by tuberculosis were locals, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, adding that the once controlled disease was re-emerging in Malaysia.
He said the majority among these were HIV sufferers whose low resistance to infectious diseases made them susceptible to the often deadly tuberculosis.
He also warned doctors against concealing tuberculosis cases, noting that it was mandatory for them to report the cases to the Health Ministry.
Under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988, those who fail to notify such cases to the Health Ministry faced a compound of up to RM5,000 or two years jail or both, he said.
“It is a simple procedure of taking a patient’s sputum sample and looking for tuberculosis bacteria under the microscope.
“General practitioners must not take this matter lightly, because a mere two weeks of prolonged cough could be due to tuberculosis,” he said after opening the state-level Tuberculosis Day 2009 celebration in Jawi here Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has ordered a thorough probe into a recent case of a woman in Kuala Lumpur who died following a liposuction precedure, he said.
Liow said yesterday that the doctor’s licence could be suspended, should there be any element of malpractice involved.
“We will also step up enforcement against operators of unlicensed salons to safeguard consumers from being used as guinea pigs,” he said.
On Thursday, many Malay newspapers carried the story of Noraini Mohd Ghazali, 30, a company director, who died at a clinic in Ampang during a follow-up liposuction procedure.
Apparently, Noraini, who weighed between 50kg and 53kg before she started the treatment, had gone for treatment 14 times since December 2007.
Apart from the victims cause of death, Liow said the probe, among others, would include the surgical procedures carried out, the products used in the treatment, as well as legality of the clinics operations.
He stressed that all beauty centers that conducted aesthetic treatment and surgery must be registered with the Health Ministry.