Missing foreigners cause spread of TB

Deputy Health Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said they disappeared because they were afraid of being sent home after the ministry lodged a report about their disease with the Immigration Department.

"A total 12.3 percent of TB cases last year involved foreign nationals," said when answering a supplementary question from Fuziah Salleh (PKR-Kuantan) on relations between foreign nationals and TB cases at Dewan Rakyat here, Monday.

"When they disappear, they will infect others around them too. This is the problem we are facing," he said.

Dr Hilmi said foreigners found with TB would be treated for six months to ensure they were free of the disease.

He said legitimate foreign workers to Malaysia must undergo a health screening in their own country first before undergoing another one here, and were not allowed to work here if they found to suffer from diseases.

Dr Hilmi said the number of TB cases in the country had risen to 24,220 cases in 2015 from 10,800 cases in 1990, up 124 per cent in 25 years.

The government was committed in eradicating TB via the National Strategic Plan For Tuberculosis Control 2012-2017, with detection and early treatment as the main strategy.

He said 549,288 patients at the Outpatient Department who had symptoms of TB underwent a phlegm examination in 2015.

Chest X-rays were also conducted on high risk groups such those in contact with TB sufferers, diabetics, those with HIV, senior citizens, smokers and those with chronic lung ailments.