Deputy Minister: Years before precise vaccine is made publicly available for Covid-19

KUALA LUMPUR: Despite Malaysia's effort to help develop a Covid-19 vaccine with several other nations, it would take years before a precise vaccine is made available to the public, says Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.

"Although a lot of countries say that they are close to developing a vaccine, our worry is that it is still at the early stages of clinical trials.

"To get a vaccine in the near future may not happen as it will take years," he said when answering a supplementary question by Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh (PH-Ledang) in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (July 22).

Dr Noor Azmi said a lot of research and funds were needed to develop a precise vaccine for Covid-19 and Malaysia is currently working with several countries such as China.

He cited dengue as an example where a vaccine for the viral fever has yet to be developed despite years of effort.

Earlier, Dr Noor Azmi said that several plans were in place to deal with the possible outbreak of infectious diseases in the community such as hand, foot and mouth disease, tuberculosis, smallpox and others.

He added that there are 32 infectious diseases listed under Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease Act which must be reported to the authorities once detected, to allow measures to be taken to prevent an outbreak.

He also said swift response by health authorities helped prevent epidemics of infectious diseases such as the Nipah virus in 1998, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, H1N1 in 2009 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERs) in 2014.

To a question by Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman (PAS-Kuala Krai), Dr Nor Azmi urged members of the public to use the MySejahtera app as it is an effective means to self-monitor one's health status while allowing for contact tracing.

Abdul Latiff had wanted to know the effectiveness of health-trackers in helping prevent the spread of Covid-19.