KOTA KINABALU: Since unwell illegal immigrants cannot be denied health services, their entry to Malaysia should be stopped, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya.
He said the relevant authorities should take steps to stem their influx to control the increase in infectious disease cases that have been recorded in the past five years.
He said there had been cases where illegal immigrants had taken advantage of the health services here, but it is beyond the ministry’s control.
“We cannot deny them health services, but as a result, sometimes they leave without paying the hospital bills.
“In fact, during health screenings, such as those conducted by Fomema, if there are 30,000 foreigners, only one-third pass the test.
“As such, we hope the relevant authorities will make sure that those unwell will leave the country because all we do is to check their health status only,” he told reporters after launching the 8th Sabah Public Health Colloquium and 1st Regional Public Health Conference here yesterday.
Foreigners with work permits should undergo health checks as part of the procedures to obtain renewals, he said, adding that if they fail, they should be sent back.
Last month, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam also made a similar call to the Home Ministry following increased cases involving foreigners suffering from infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis over the past five years.
He said if the authorities did not take the necessary steps to tackle this issue, it would pose a threat to Malaysians.
Subramaniam said it was estimated that about 7.8 per cent of illegal immigrants were suffering from infectious diseases, especially those working in Sabah, but did not provide an exact figure.
He said what was needed was the full cooperation of the Home Ministry to reduce and monitor the entry of illegal immigrants into the country.
Earlier in his speech, Hilmi said globalisation had helped spread a costly epidemic of chronic diseases to the developing countries.
“As a result, chronic diseases, strongly linked to diet, physical activity, tobacco and alcohol consumption, have increased dramatically. The burden of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes mellitus and asthma is now heaviest in low and middle-income countries. Globalisation has changed the epidemiology of emerging and epidemic-prone diseases,” he said.
Data from the Malaysian National Health Morbidity Survey in 2011 showed that Malaysia has about 2.6 million adults with diabetes, 5.8 million (hypertension), 6.2 million (hypercholesterolemia) and 2.5 million (obesity), but a large proportion of Malaysians with non-communicable diseases (NCD) risk factors remain undiagnosed.
“For every one person diagnosed with diabetes in Malaysia, there is another one who is undiagnosed; for every two known hypertensive, three are undiagnosed, and for every one person diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia, three have undiagnosed high cholesterol,” said Hilmi.
He therefore urged the people to go for medical check-ups, at least one a year for those aged 30 and above.
“If you can go and send your car for servicing once in three months, I am sure you can get yourself checked, because if you do not go for medical check-ups, no one can force you to do so. Take good care of yourself because it matters,” he said, adding that one must change one’s lifestyle.
Meanwhile Sabah Health Department director Dr Christina Rundi said the event aimed at sharing knowledge of evidence-based information among inter-regional public health professionals, gaining new insights in attaining ideal public health services and strengthening networking in public health among regional countries.
“Initially, the event was held just within Sabah. The doctors had their own avenues to share information and so did the other health professionals. But it had caught the interest of others, so we believe it has reached a stage where it was time to open it to the region since we have the same climate and diseases. It is a good platform for us to discuss on our research and findings.
“Plus, we have some communications with officers from neighbouring countries,” she said.
A total of 360 people from Brunei, Thailand, Libya and Malaysia attended the event.