Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali built a medical career around public service, especially maternal and child health. Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah died at the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 28, 2026, at age 100. Malaysia’s government portal cited her son, Mokhzani Mahathir, in reporting the death and gave the time as 9:20 a.m.; Bernama also reported her death. The announcement marks the end of a long public life, but her years in medicine began before she became widely known as the wife of a prime minister.
Born in Klang, Selangor, on July 12, 1926, she studied at King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore and graduated in 1955, The Star reported. Bernama says she enrolled in 1947 and was the only Malay woman studying medicine at the college that year. After housemanship at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, she joined the Health Ministry as a medical officer. She and Mahathir married in 1956. Her early career included medical posts in Kedah, where she served patients and encountered the health needs of rural communities.
From 1956 to 1962, Siti Hasmah served as a medical officer in Alor Setar. In 1962 she became acting medical superintendent for northern Kedah, according to Bernama. The University of Malaya Department of Social and Preventive Medicine records that she later became the first woman medical officer in the Maternal and Child Health Department. In 1965, she also became principal of the Rural Health Training School in Jitra. The roles joined direct medical service with training other health workers. Bernama reports that Kedah awarded her its Excellent Service Medal in 1964 for her role in tackling a cholera outbreak.
In 1974, she became Kedah’s first State Maternal and Child Health Officer and also served at the Institute for Public Health in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. The University department’s history says she organized village programs and competitions on hygiene, healthy lifestyles and immunization for children. The settings mattered: the work brought health information into communities and addressed subjects families encountered in daily life. She retired from government service in 1979.
Her outreach included conversations with traditional healers, midwives and local women about postnatal and newborn care. The University of Malaya profile describes efforts to address practices that could put mothers’ or babies’ health at risk, alongside family-planning education. Bernama reports that she and colleagues also traveled to villages to provide treatment, immunization and health education, and worked to train village midwives. The record shows an approach based on medical care and communication with people already caring for families in their communities. The University of Malaya profile says misconceptions around family planning were gradually addressed through patient education, communication and mutual respect between health workers and community members.
After leaving government service, she taught at the University of Malaya’s Dental Faculty until 1981. Her public work also extended beyond clinical and teaching roles. The Star reported that she held leadership positions in the Girl Guides Association of Malaysia and took part in initiatives related to family welfare, women’s development and drug prevention.
Her advocacy also reached beyond Malaysia. Bernama records that she represented Malaysia at an international conference on drug abuse in Vienna in 1987 and attended the 1992 First Ladies Summit for the Economic Advancement of Rural Women in Geneva. There, she was selected as one of six Asia-Pacific core-group initiators. The work continued her attention to rural women on an international stage.
From the health department in Jitra to a Geneva summit, her roles covered a wider map but held a common concern: practical support for women, children and families. Village health education, midwife training, family-planning conversations and maternal-health posts gave that concern its working shape. As a physician, teacher and public advocate, she carried it from local assignments into national and international service.
The institutions and news accounts recording her work describe more than a public title: a career that moved between patient care, training, teaching and advocacy. Siti Hasmah’s life in medicine spanned decades and left a documented record of work with rural women, mothers and children.
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