Manama: Qatar health authorities have identified 73 people, recently arrived in the country, who have been infected with HIV.
The Medical Commission, which runs mandatory health checks on foreigners and their family members arriving in Qatar to work, conducted medical examinations of 212,000 people between April and August. The check-ups also included people handling food who were already employed in the country.
The commission also identified 74 confirmed cases of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, senior officials from the commission were reported as saying in Qatari daily The Peninsula on Friday.
A total of 1,847 people were found unfit to work or to stay in Qatar after they were found to be infected with the virus or other diseases.
Majority of them (1,346) had dormant TB bacteria, the authorities said.
According to Ibrahim Al Shaar, the Medical Commission’s director, the monthly average number of people who were checked by the commission between April and August was 42,379, "a figure that is very high considering that the earlier average was 1,927,” he said.
