Rising HIV cases in RP alarms Saudi embassy

MANILA, Philippines—The rising number of HIV and AIDS cases in the country has so worried the Saudi embassy here that it advised medical clinics processing overseas Filipino workers bound for Middle East countries to intensify medical exams and screening for workers to be deployed there, it was learned Thursday.

Departing Saudi Ambassador to the Philippines Muhammad Ameen Wali had called Dr. Rodolfo Punzalan, president and chairman of accredited clinics that screen OFWs leaving for the Gulf countries, to express his concern over the reported upsurge in the cases of human immuno-deficiency virus and acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome in the country.

Punzalan’s 17 Gamca (Gulf Cooperation Council Accedited Medical Center Association) clinics screen OFWs leaving for Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates for infectious diseases.

On December 1, 2009, during the 21st World AIDS Day, the United Nations noted that HIV and AIDS cases in the country have climbed steeply in recent years. More than 9,000 HIV cases have been reported since 1984, with the highest number of monthly cases seen last May 2009.

“The Philippines, with the first AIDS case reported in 1984, remains a low prevalence country, with cases registered at less than 0.1 percent of the total population. However, the recent report of the Philippine HIV and AIDS Registry shows a steep and accelerating number of reported cases in the country,” the UN had said then.

Punzalan stressed that the screening is to prevent the spread of diseases. He said the Gamca referral decking system red-flags an applicant found or suspected with an infectious disease.

The Gamca official said Saudi is very strict with this requirement, performing confirmatory medical exams on all OFWs coming from the Philippines.

He said that in the faxed memo from the Saudi embassy, the latter noted that an increasing number of OFWs have been declared unfit for work by hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

“Now, if we have a lot of repatriations due to infectious diseases, it would affect the hiring of OFWs,” Punzalan warned.

OFWs declared unfit for work by hospitals in Saudi are repatriated at the expense of the employer or the clinic, which is then fined $1,000 for every repatriated OFW.

Punzalan said that among the infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS is the most feared by Middle East employers, followed by pulmonary tuberculosis, venereal diseases, hepatitis, congestive heart, diabetes, and hypertension. –Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net