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| Dr al-Khal: treatment for all, no questions asked |
Foreigners found infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) may be repatriated to their home country if they “do not have a family member to take care of them in Qatar”, Gulf Times has learnt.
Qatar has a policy of checking newcomers into the country for chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis A and B as well as HIV, and this is a condition to issuing any type of visas such as work, family visit or resident visas.
And according to a Medical Commission (MC) bylaw, people living with HIV and Aids (PLWHA) are not granted an entry into or permitted to work in Qatar regardless of their profession.
Also, those people who are found infected with the virus in the country face eviction despite the recent claims by the health authorities not to discriminate or stigmatise PLWHA.
“It is true that the government has made provision for free treatment of PLWHA in Qatar regardless of their nationalities and backgrounds. However, we are always concerned about their welfare outside of the hospital, especially to ensure they observe 100% compliance to their medications, which is key to preventing the virus from getting worse and becoming Aids,” Hamad Medical Commission Medicine Department chairman Dr Abdullatif al-Khal has said.
“So, in light of that, any person detected with the virus that belong to the labourer or single male worker category will unfortunately be repatriated back to their countries after they have received up to three months of care in our facilities here, because we believe that they will be better taken care of by their family members back home,” he added.
However, the official who said that how people get infected was not of much importance to the authorities, said: “The country has well-developed medical services with experienced specialists in HIV looking after PLWHA in Qatar. Apart from full laboratory support, we are providing treatment with about 25 different anti-retroviral drugs free of cost for all people, both Qataris and non-Qataris.”
“We do not want to scare people off from coming forward to check their HIV status and we also don’t want to further cause distress or frighten the affected person by asking them how they contract the virus because according to our data, we know that majority got it through unsafe practices such as casual sexual relations and injectable drug use.
“But, we don’t want to go into all that with them ... may be as time goes by, the patients might willingly divulge how they got infected,” the official stated.
Dr al-Khal mentioned that the National Committee on the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids) had organised series of programmes targeting low-paid workers or labourers by taking the campaign against HIV/Aids to various work sites and residential camps, teaching them how to protect themselves and others against the killer virus but unfortunately, the programme could not be sustained due to some logistical reasons, including high employee turnover in most companies.
On whether the Medical Commission should reveal the HIV status of an employee to their employers as part of request for certificate of fitness for that employee, Dr al-Khal affirmed that confidentiality of result in that situation should be maintained and that the Commission should issue a certificate of fitness for such person without disclosing their status to the employers.
“So far as a person infected with HIV is not having heart-related disease or is fit to work and their job is not a risk due to physical interaction with others, the Commission is obliged to give them a fitness certificate,” he maintained.
Qatar has a low prevalence of HIV/Aids at 0.02% and plans are afoot to start voluntary counselling and testing for the virus among pregnant women and those visiting the Emergency Department, as part of a national response to curb the spread of the virus.
