KUALA LUMPUR: Lung diseases are among the top three causes of hospitalisation and deaths in the country, says Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.
The Health Minister said it was also alarming that more than 500,000 asthma cases remained undetected, based on findings from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2023.
“According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey 2023, 6% of adults and up to 13% of children have asthma, while around one in three sufferers remain undiagnosed,” he said at the opening of the 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting of the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health (Respire) here yesterday.
Based on these figures, more than 1.4 million adults and almost 500,000 children in the country suffer from asthma.
Dzulkefly said chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affect a significant portion of the population.
Tuberculosis also continued to place a significant burden on the healthcare system, with an incidence of 96 cases per 100,000 people in 2024, he added.
To address the burden of respiratory diseases, Dzulkefly said the government is operationalising the Healthy Lung Initiative 2025-2030.
“By the end of 2026, 902 health clinics nationwide are expected to implement an integrated lung health approach. This brings together health promotion, screening, smoking cessation and referral pathways into a person-centred continuum of care.”
He added that the ministry is also shifting towards precision public health by expanding AI-assisted chest X-ray screening for early detection.
This includes the LungShield Programme, a collaboration between IHH Healthcare Malaysia, the Health Ministry and the police to screen 10,000 traffic police personnel.
“To ensure our policies are evidence-based, we have established a dedicated database called Nalury, or the National Lung Health Registry, to support programme monitoring and evaluation,” he said.
Dzulkefly said the ministry is also tackling the root causes of respiratory diseases by enforcing the Control of Smoking Products for Public Health Act.
“We are also leveraging digital innovations such as the Cik Era AI Companion to provide accessible smoking cessation support.”
Dzulkefly said Malaysia had also elevated lung health as a key regional priority during the 17th Asean Health Ministers’ Meeting in Kuala Lumpur last week.
He noted that the meeting established a platform to translate global commitments into coordinated regional action.
Dzulkefly said programmes such as Respire are crucial in producing the evidence to expand services, adopt new technologies and ensure equitable access.
“Your focus on delivering low-cost, scalable clinical interventions for low- and middle-income countries is exactly the kind of pragmatic innovation we need.”
The four-day meeting was hosted by Universiti Malaya and the University of Edinburgh.
