[top photo: Muhyiddin holding up a sample of the form which has to be filled up by all visitors to Malaysia as Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai looks on.]

By Izatun Shari

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Travellers entering Malaysia will have to fill up a mandatory health declaration form in a move to combat the A (H1N1) influenza virus.

The Health Ministry will gazette the mandatory health declaration form next week.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said travellers entering the country had been filling up the form voluntarily for the past few months.

"It is compulsory for every visitor entering and those who return to Malaysia to fill in the form which will be printed in several languages," he said after chairing the first meeting of the national inter-ministerial committee on the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic at the Parliament House yesterday.

Muhyiddin said visitors who failed to fill up the form would be liable to a fine of not more than RM10,000 and imprisonment of not exceeding two years or both under Section 15 of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act.

The mandatory ruling is among the 10 steps outlined by the committee to combat the spread of the H1N1 flu.

Asked when the ruling would take effect, he said: "After the gazette. The Health Ministry will make the announcement."

Muhyiddin said embassies and high commissions in the country would be informed about the matter to ensure that foreigners adhere to the ruling

- The Star/Asia News Network