JEDDAH, 29 May 2007 — The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has decided to test workers at food outlets, barbershops, blood-cupping centers and laundries in order to ensure that they are free from diseases such as malaria, AIDS, hepatitis B and C, diabetes and venereal diseases.
“The general administration for environmental health in the Kingdom will take steps, with the approval of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, to make sure that workers employed in restaurants, laundries, blood cupping and barber shops are free from diseases from June 16,” Dr. Muhammad Al-Futawi, director general of environmental health in Makkah Municipality, told Arab News yesterday.
Health certificates and residence permits to workers in such jobs will be issued only if they are free from these diseases, Dr. Futawi said. He added that the environmental health administration in other parts of the Kingdom would follow the same regulations.
The medical check-up certificates for those who are working in areas involving public health will have to state that laboratory examinations have been made to ensure that the bearer of the certificate is not suffering from malaria, AIDS, hepatitis B and C, venereal diseases or diabetes. The workers should also undergo examinations for eye diseases, mental and neurotic disorders, hernia and varicose veins. Such certificates will be required for the issuance of residence permits as well.
Diagnostic centers licensed for medical examination of expatriate workers will issue four copies of a medical check-up statement.
The first copy is intended for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, which issues the health certificate, the second for the Passports Department, which issues the residence permit (iqama), and the third for the concerned worker while the fourth will be kept as an office copy at the clinic where the check-up was made, Dr. Futawi said.
He said a meeting of all related departments in the Makkah region would be held in order to discuss the ways and means of implementing the new regulations.
Several officials and businessmen praised the new move saying that the decision was welcome because it would be an effective measure to protect both Saudi and expatriate customers from being exposed to diseases from unhealthy workers in restaurants and salons in which the managers do not observe the health and hygienic regulations.
Chairman of the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry Adel Abdullah Al-Kaaki said the decision was key to guaranteeing public health as both healthy and unhealthy workers are mixed together in various trades involving public health. “There are workers with communicable diseases working in barbershops, restaurants and other places which are closely linked to public health,” he said.
Lt. Col. Shoayl Al-Matrafi, director of the Expatriate Monitoring Department in Makkah, said the new regulation would be a significant move for the protection of public health as some workers with communicable diseases are currently working in hygienically sensitive positions.
Dr. Qays Haddad, head of the department of infectious diseases at the security forces hospital, explained how unhygienic practices in blood-cupping caused the spread of diseases.
“There are certain germs living on the human skin which can cause a disease only when there occurs a cut or bruise. The germs enter the body at the time of cupping if the spot of the cupping is not sterilized. It may cause abscess or swelling that may lead to blood poisoning. Unclean cupping tools may carry fatal infectious diseases from one person to another,” he said.
