Malaysia is at risk of bringing in diseases caused by antibiotic resistance with the expected increase in migration to the country, warned a medical expert.

University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) infection control committee chairperson Prof Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman said that antibiotic resistance is a global problem but the rate is noticeably higher among less developed countries.

“In terms of travel and increasing migration, we (Malaysia) run the risk of bringing in diseases caused by antibiotic resistant organisms,” Adeeba told Malaysiakini when met after the launch of UMMC’s World Antibiotic Awareness Week in Petaling Jaya today.

“Tuberculosis (TB) is just one example but right now, we do not as yet have a major problem with multi-drug resistant TB.

“If we are not careful, however, we are at risk from not just the migration of people who harbour antibiotic resistant organisms, but we ourselves can create that antibiotic resistant organisms within our own patients,” she explained.

She also stressed that migration is just one contributing factor to the larger problem of growing resistance to antibiotics and that steps must be taken to address the issue in a holistic manner.

Popular destination

Within the South East Asian region, Malaysia is a popular destination country for both economic migrants as well as refugees.

This is aside from the government’s plans to bring in 1.5 million Bangladeshi workers over the next three years.

It was also announced that Malaysia has plans to accept 3,000 Syrian refugees over the same period of time, aside from the estimated 150,000 Myanmar refugees already in the country.

With regards to management of TB, Adeeba said the government should enforce mandatory health screenings to detect any person with the active bacteria, particularly before allowing them to stay and work in Malaysia.

“This (screening) is part of prevention but if a person is detected with the TB bacteria, they should not be turned away or denied access to treatment,” she said.

Adeeba said this is because the full treatment for TB will require six month and a failure to complete the whole process can result in the bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics.

Antibiotic resistance is defined as a condition when an antibiotic loses its ability to effectively control bacterial growth or kill bacteria.

The Antibiotic Awareness Week was organised in partnership with ReAct, an independent global network on antibiotic resistance, as well as the Malaysian Society of Infectious Diseases and Chemotheraphy.