Perak malaria outbreak: Are foreign workers to be blamed?

The Health Ministry is not ruling out the possibility that foreign workers may have contributed to the malaria outbreak in Perak.

The ministry today said the parasite may be carried by illegals from Bangladesh and Indonesia.

The ministry's Malaria Elimination Programme Senior Principal Assistant Director, Dr Ummi Kalthom Shamsudin said, although the workers may carry the parasite in their bodies, they still need the vector for transmission to occur.

“When we talk about foreigners, we are talking about the presence of parasites and the foreigners might bring the parasite in and if the locality they are around have the anopheles, the mosquitoes from the area might bite the foreigner and then the same mosquito can bite another person from the locality.

“That locality might be a virgin from malaria, so they might not have any local transmission but because of the presence of the population, the presence of parasites, plus the presence of the mosquitoes, then transmission occurs," she told Astro AWANI here today.

Dr Ummi also said that the Hulu Perak Health Department has conducted screening for 71 foreign workers in Pos Kemar.

“Bear in mind that the Hulu Perak Health Department has done screening on illegal workers in Pos Kemar and found them negative.

“But on the other hand, can we be rest assured that that the 71 people screened are the only ones around, because they can be very mobile and those who are illegals who run off when they see the health authorities."

She said Malaysians who travelled to the endemic countries may also contribute to the outbreak.

Yesterday, a new malaria outbreak was identified at an Orang Asli settlement in Pos Poi.

READ: New malaria outbreak reported in Perak

However, the outbreak is not related to the earlier outbreak in Gerik and is caused by different parasites.

Six people, aged between 1 and 31, have since being hospitalised.

The total number of malaria cases now stands at 142.