This was revealed by Indonesian Health Department authorities who have recorded only 78,000 women as having undergone medical check-ups as a prerequisite to being employed as maids in Malaysia.

Immigration Department foreign labour division director Abdul Rahman Othman said this represented only 24 per cent of the 320,000 Indonesians working in Malaysia as maids.

This, he said, could possibly expose employers, family members and those who came in contact with the maids to diseases like hepatitis B and tuberculosis.

"Those who were not registered with the Indonesian Health Department are believed to have got medical certificates illegally.

"So, there is a high risk of contracting contagious diseases from these people," he told a dialogue session at the 13th Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies' annual general meeting.

Also present yesterday were Immigration deputy director-general Yusof Abu Bakar and association president Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan.

Abdul Rahman said this was the reason why the department was not planning to reduce the number of compulsory medical check-ups.

Answering a query from the floor, he said a Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema) report stated that two per cent (6,400) of the foreign maids in the country had hepatitis B or tuberculosis.