PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry has pledged to look into allegations that its nurses had treated members of the Orang Asli Bateq tribe in Gua Musang, Kelantan, with disdain during their community health visits.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the allegations that the nurses had “heckled” the tribe members and “made faces” at them would be investigated fully.
“This is a very serious claim. We want to take responsibility and take it very seriously.
“It (the allegations) must be checked. For now, it is still an allegation that must be looked into,” he said in response to a New Straits Times’ front page report yesterday.
The NST had quoted Pos Aring 5 Tok Batin, Raina Anjang, as claiming that the reason why the Bateq people did not trust the authorities were because they were treated “only slightly better than animals”.
Raina had also claimed that nurses from the state Health Department “made faces and heckled” the tribe members during their health visits, which led to the Orang Asli distrusting the authorities. This, claimed Raina, led to the low immunisation and vaccination rate among the Bateq.
A number of Orang Asli from the Bateq tribe have died following a measles outbreak within their community.
On why the health authorities failed to detect the measles virus when it came to the Kampung Kuala Koh Orang Asli settlement in May during its monthly visit, Dr Dzulkefly said there were no indication of a spike in fever cases.
“We have gone through our records at the Aring Health Clinic and the Kampung Kuala Koh mobile clinic records. There was no spike in outpatient case trends,” he said.
Dr Dzulkefly also confirmed that there were six more measles cases detected, which brings it to 43 confirmed cases out of 113 reported cases involving the Bateq tribe.
He also said there have been no new fatalities and that things are under control.
The minister said the post-mortem examination on the 12 bodies taken from Kampung Kuala Koh has been completed, and that laboratory results on the samples taken would be known within two to three days.