The Saudi Arabian government yesterday urged Philippine medical clinics undertaking medical exams for overseas Filipino workers bound for the Middle East to undertake stricter measures in examining OFWs suspected of having the HIV/AIDS disease.
Saudi Ambassador to the Philippines Mohammad Amen Wali was reacting to a news report that the Department of Health’s HIV/AIDS Registry showed that from January 1984 to July 2009, there were 4,021 HIV cases in the Philippines, 817 of whom have progressed into AIDS.
Health officials said 3,609 of the 4,021 cases were infected through sexual contact.
From 2007, a total of 477 cases or 38 percent of sexual transmission was homosexual while 423 or 34 percent were heterosexual and 341 or 28 percent were bisexual.
The Department of Health (DoH) had registered 432 HIV/AIDS cases from January to July 2009.
Seventy of the cases were recorded in July with “bisexual contact as the most predominant type of sexual transmission.”
Dr. Rodolfo Punzalan, Chairman and President of GCC Accredited Medical Clinics Association (GAMCA), which is authorized by the Middle East countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman to perform medical exams on OFWs bound for those countries, said that his association has taken the necessary steps to ferret out suspected HIV/AIDS cases among OFWs.
Punzalan also vowed to strictly follow the rules imposed by Ministries of Health of the countries mentioned through the 17 clinics of GAMCA in Metro Manila.
Gamca Philippines and the DoH in particular with the National Reference Laboratory in San Lazaro Hospital housing the STD/AIDS Cooperative Central Laboratory work in cooperation to provide a healthy workplace environment both here and abroad.–Michaela P. del Callar, Daily Tribune
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
