The next Malaysian Health Minister be warned - the post seems cursed as 80 per cent of its past holders have fallen into political oblivion soon after taking over the portfolio, according to a report in The Star newspaper on Thursday.

Records show that except for the first two Health Ministers, the other 14 had either died, became embroiled in some scandal or fell out of political favour after they took on the post.

The late Tun Leong Yew Koh (the pre-independence Health minister) went on to become the first Governor of Malacca after independence while his successor Tun V. T. Sambanthan went on to be a prominent leader until he stepped aside as MIC president in 1972.

The third Health Minister was Tun Omar Ong Yoke Lin who held the post for a year before being appointed Minister without Portfolio. In 1963, he was made Ambassador to the United Nations. His political career never survived that posting.

Mr Ong's successor, Abdul Aziz Ishak, quit the post in the same year that he was appointed because he fell out with Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. Mr Aziz was then detained under the Internal Security Act and became the first sitting minister to be held under the Act, said The Star.

The fifth Health Minister was Dr Lim Swee Aun who held the post for a year. After the 1964 general elections, he was appointed Commerce Minister - a more senior position but in the 1969 election he lost his MP seat. He then retired from active politics.

His successor was Tan Sri Bahaman Samsudin, a civil servant-turned-politician. Although he was briefly appointed as Justice Minister in 1968, he was not fielded as a candidate in 1969.

In 1968, Dr Ng Kam Poh was appointed briefly as the Health Minister and then as Welfare Services Minister in 1969. He lost his MP seat in 1969 and also quit politics.

The seventh was the then Umno deputy president Tun Sardon Jubir who held the post until 1972. He retired from politics in 1974 and was made Ambassador to the UN - a post then normally associated with retired politicians.

The next eight Health Ministers were all from the MCA and most of them suffered from political fallout following in-fighting in the party.

Johor's Datuk Chua Jui Meng was appointed as the 15th Health Minister and held the post for almost a decade. In 2004, he was dropped as the Health Minister after he sided with Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek against Dr Ling. He challenged the present party president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting for the top post but was defeated, said The Star.

Fellow Johorean, Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek succeeded Datuk Chua.

On Wednesday, Dr Chua Soi Lek quit after admitting he was the man in a widely-circulated sex DVD.

'If indeed there is such a curse or jinx then Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may find it difficult to find anyone volunteering for the post,' commented The Star.