KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema) applauds the government’s decision to tighten medical examination for foreign workers.
Fomema chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Hatar Ismail said currently foreign workers only need to undergo one medical check.
“The government has made this decision after the reappearance of long eradicated illnesses. I believe this is an appropriate measure taken by the government to ensure that these diseases do not spread,“ he said.
He said some of the foreign workers had to undergo a medical examination in their country before they could get to work here.
“After 30 days of entering the country they have to go for another medical examination, and the percentage of failure is only about 2.3 to 2.5 per cent,” he told the media after his opening speech at the Fomema and Foreign Workers’ Employers Interaction programme at Universiti Malaya Alumni Centre here.
Hatar said some of the most dangerous communicable diseases that were brought by these foreigners included tuberculosis (TB), leprosy, malaria and sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, HIV and AIDS.
Last year, former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said beginning Jan 1 this year all foreign workers would need to undergo compulsory health screening which was already in place as well as other additional screenings.
Previously, foreign workers undergo medical check-ups prior to their arrival, another check one month after arriving in the country and at the end of their first and second year working period.
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