COMMUNICABLE DISEASES BIGGEST CHALLENGE

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 (Bernama) -- The presence of a large number of foreign
workers in Malaysia has placed a great strain on the medical and health services
in the country, a symposium on foreign workers was told Monday.

The imputed cost of providing medical care to foreigners now amounted to
RM578 million per year, said Zaikon Jaafar, senior industrial consultant of the
Malaysian Employers Federation.

In his paper on issues and challenges related to foreign workers, he said
that besides this, the government also spent about RM3 to RM4 million per year
providing meals to foreign detainees.

To reduce this cost, he suggested that ill egal foreign workers be
sent back to their home countries immediately.

Another participant, Dr. Balachandran Satiamurti, Deputy Director of the
Disease Control Division of the helath Ministry, said communicable diseases
related to Tuberculosis, STD and HIV posed the biggest challenge to both
employers and the ministry.

This was partly because the countries from where these workers were
sourced had high incidence of such diseases, he said.

Urban malaria was also a cause of concern with two outbreaks of the disease
reported in Penang and Selangor last July and August.

He said that to reduce the health problems of migrants there needed to be
commitment from all parties concerned.

Recruiting agents should ensure that all workers were medically fit before
departing from their country of origin and the employers should employ only
medically fit workers so that they do not endanger themselves and their fellow
workers.

Examining doctors should also ensure that the workers were examined and
certified according to set guildelines and employers and agents should advise
workers to take care of their health and avoid risky behaviour so as not to
jeopardise their health and work, he said.

-- BERNAMA