KUALA LUMPUR: Preventive healthcare measures are essential for outbound travellers, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
The Health Minister said a local study revealed that only 40.5% of Malaysian travellers sought medical advice before their trips abroad, while 52.8% received required pre-travel vaccinations.
“This is a glaring, dangerous gap in our preventive armour,” he said in his speech at the 2nd IMU University Travel Medicine Seminar yesterday.
The matter is especially urgent, he said, as the Finance Ministry reported an estimated expenditure of RM61.4bil. As such, he explained that travel medicine, which involves preparing outbound citizens for international travel, is the “absolute embodiment of preventive healthcare”.
”It is inherently anticipatory and identifies, mitigates and neutralises health risks long before a traveller steps onto an aircraft, and long before an imported pathogen reaches our borders.”
Travel medicine also plays an indispensable role in mass gatherings, Dzulkefly said, pointing to the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians who undertake religious pilgrimages such as the haj and umrah.
“These dense, massive movements present highly unique epidemiological risks.
“Managing them effectively is not just a logistical necessity; it is a cornerstone of global health security advocated by the World Health Organization.”
At the same time, he said Malaysia welcomed 42.2 million foreign tourists last year, and if even 5% of these visitors encountered minor health issues during their stay, nearly two million individuals would absorb resources from Malaysia’s primary healthcare system.
”By strategically managing the travel health needs of these tourists, the discipline of travel medicine directly protects the capacity, resilience and sanity of our domestic healthcare infrastructure,” he said.
