Report TB cases, docs told

Star: NIBONG TEBAL: With more than 15,000 Malaysians falling ill from tuberculosis (TB) last year, the Health Ministry is warning doctors that it is mandatory to report such cases.
Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said, of the 17,506 TB cases reported last year, only 14.2% were foreign workers, while the rest were locals.
He said among the reasons was the high number of HIV positive patients who had low resistance to infectious diseases.
He added that under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988, those who fail to notify TB cases faced a RM5,000 fine or two years’ jail, or both.
“Most doctors are laid back when it comes to TB,” he said after opening the state-level TB Day 2009 celebration in Jawi, here, yesterday.
“It is a simple procedure of taking a patient’s sputum sample and looking for TB bacteria,” he said, adding that two weeks of a prolonged cough could be due to TB infection.
Liow said teachers could play a role in teaching their charges proper hygiene.
He said they could get students to know the proper way to cough like cupping their mouths when doing so.
Asked about Noraini Mohd Ghazali, 30, who died at a clinic in Ampang during a follow-up liposuction procedure, Liow said he had ordered a thorough probe into the case.