Advice for Malaysians to undergo medical examination upon return from Rio

ALOR STAR: The Health Ministry today advised supporters of the Malaysian contingent who returned from the just-concluded Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro to undergo a medical examination if they suffer from fever to detect any infection of the Zika virus or yellow fever.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said the ministry was monitoring the athletes and officials.
"We are monitoring our athletes because we know who they are but the supporters could have gone to Brazil through other countries. When they return to Malaysia, they should be medically examined if they have fever," he told reporters after launching the National Blue Ocean Strategy programme at the Ministry of Health Training Institute at the Alor Setar Medical Assistants College here.
Six hundred students repainted the college with the help of several government agencies like the Department of Civil Defence and the Parole Office of the Kedah Prisons Department.
Dr Hilmi said the Ministry would continue with the appropriate measures to prevent yellow fever and the zika virus from entering the country.
Meanwhile, Dr Hilmi said parents who used homeopathy methods on their children were doing them an injustice as they would not get protection from diseases.
The Selangor Health Department had reported a diphtheria case involving a three-year-old child.
According to Director-General of Health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the child did not have immunisation against the disease as the family opted for homeopathic treatment.
On the NBOS programme, Dr Hilmi said it could reduce expenditure in the form of payments to contractor companies by up to 70%.
"The cost of repainting 33 training institutes is RM5.4 million but through NBOS we are able to bring it down to only RM2 million," he said. — Bernama