Tuberculosis Returns To Malaysia

The Health Ministry wants Malaysians to stop employing illegal workers or risk getting infected by tuberculosis. According to the ministry’s data, TB death cases rose by 5.8% from 1,603 cases in 2014 to 1,696 last year. Such cases were still high, with a drop of only 2% from 24,711 cases in 2014 to 24,220 last year.

Of the new cases, 12% were migrant workers and many were illegals. Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya expressed concern that employers were hiring illegals and this had put their families and community at risk of contracting TB.

“This is a concern because we have a high number of diabetics and diabetics are prone to getting infected,” he said at a press conference on National TB and Lung Diseases conference yesterday.
The ministry would treat illegals for two weeks and then refer them to the Immigration Department to be deported, but some did not return home, he said.

In fact, some illegals ran away in the midst of treatment for fear of being deported, he added.
“This can cause a relapse and other people could be infected.”

Dr Hilmi said it was difficult to control illegals from entering the country as Malaysia’s borders were porous, but he urged the people to play their part.

They are advised to see a doctor if they have been coughing for more than two weeks, have fever, sweating at night, lack appetite, suffer from weight loss and coughing blood.

He said the treatment for TB took six months and patients should complete the course or risk relapse.
Deputy Health director-general Datuk Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman said that as long as the country had illegal workers, the TB problem would persist.

Last year, the health authorities managed to detect 79.45 cases for every 100,000 population.
The highest number of TB cases were reported in Sabah (4,464), followed by Selangor (4,429) and Sarawak (2,575), Johor (2,409) and Kuala Lumpur (1,819).

The states with the highest number of deaths were Sabah (264), followed by Selangor (255), Sarawak (195), Perak (162) and Johor (135).