Saudi gov’t to Manila clinics: Intensify tests and screening of Pinoy workers

The rising number of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines has prompted an advisory from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Manila to clinics conducting medical exams to Filipino workers bound for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman to intensify its tests and screening for workers to be deployed to the Middle East countries.

Dr. Rodolfo Punzalan, president of Gulf Coordinating Council Accredited Medical Center Association (Gamca), said he received an advisory from the embassy informing Gamca-recognized clinics “to follow strictly the medical protocols” imposed by the GCC countries to prevent any infectious diseases into the Middle East states.

Since 1984, a total of 4,218 HIV/AIDS cases have been reported in the Philippines.

The Department of Health said there has been an increase in diagnosed HIV/AIDs cases every year since 2000.

A total of 629 new cases were reported in the first ten months of 2009, which is more than what was recorded 2008.

Among the infectious diseases or illness, HIV/AIDS is the most feared by Middle East employers followed by tuberculosis, venereal, hepatitis, chronic renal, congestive heart, diabetes, hypertension and other illness/diseases barred by labor-importing countries.

The latest advisory from the Saudi Embassy cites an increasing number of unfit OFWs arriving from the Philippines which are being discovered by hospitals in Saudi Arabia who perform confirmatory medical exam on all overseas Filipino workers coming from the Philippines, said recruitment consultant Emmanuel Geslani.

These unfit OFWs, he said, are repatriated immediately at the expense of the employer or the clinic who are made to pay the fine of $ 1,000 for every OFW repatriated for health reasons including the replacement costs. –Michaela P. del Callar, Manila Times