Friday, July 25, 2008 Health official worries over deportees' health By Bong P. Garcia
LOCAL health officials will coordinate with the Malaysian health minister to ensure that no one among the deportees being sent home is afflicted with any diseases.
City Health Officer Rodel Agbulos said health officials are apprehensive some of the deportees might be afflicted with Human Immuno-Virus-Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV-AIDS) and would spread such dreaded disease here.
Agbulos said that of the 15 HIV-AIDS cases recorded in Zamboanga City since 1996, eight were Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who came from Malaysia.
He said coordination is important since it is difficult to determine whether some of them are afflicted with the disease, as under the law HIV testing is voluntary.
"We cannot force the deportees coming in or even those who comes from Malaysia to have themselves tested," Agbulos said.
Since last week, the Malaysian government has deported more than 1,000 Filipinos back to the country via this city.
The deportees boarded the commercial ferry that plies twice a week from this city to Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia and vice-versa.
Except for natives of this city, the deportees will stay at the temporary settlement center of the Department of Social Welfare and Development of Zamboanga City before they are being sent home to their place of origin.
