Dubai Medical screening of expatriate workers in their home countries has reduced the rate of positive test results for diseases by half, a senior Ministry of Health official said.
The decision by the Ministry of Health to screen expatriate workers for contagious diseases in their home countries before they are granted work visas, had come into force in October last year.
The screening was initially for workers from Indonesia and Sri Lanka under the new guidelines. It will be introduced in phases on expatriates from other countries.
Dr Mahmoud Fikri, Assistant Undersecretary for Health Policies said at a recent meeting that UAE's initiative to screen foreign workers in their home countries has proved successful. "The initial evaluation of the experiment during the last six months proved that the results are excellent," he said.
He was speaking at a meeting to discuss the mechanism of the application and means of coordination with stakeholders both at home and abroad.
"The results of tests revealed that about 50 per cent of the total number of persons screened in their home countries had tested positive for infectious diseases, particularly for Tuberculosis", said Dr Fikri.
This move helps to avoid the situation of the workers coming into the UAE and undergoing medical check-up in the country, and later returning to their home countries once they are proved unfit for work, he said.
The doctor said the Ministry was preparing to achieve electronically link all stake holders.
