Foreign workers who are diagnosed with tuberculosis on their arrival for the first time in Saudi Arabia are deported back to their country of origin if found suffering from non-infectious type of TB, according to Dr. Khaled Bin Abdulrahman Al-Turki, Deputy Director General for Primary Health Care and Preventive Medicine in the Ministry of Health. But for foreign workers who have infectious TB, they undergo treatment before being sent back to their respective countries, Dr. Al Turki said. Dr. Turki also added that those expatriates who are holding valid Iqamas, if diagnosed with TB at the time of renewal of their Iqamas, are made to undergo treatment. Expatriates arriving in the Kingdom go through medical screening tests - once in their home countries and then in designated centers of the Ministry of Health or in private centers authorized by the ministry on their arrival in the Kingdom. Cases of TB are increasing in the Kingdom. In Eastern Province alone, there were 168 reported cases of TB patients in 2007, with most cases falling under the age group of 16-45 years, according to the statistics recorded by the Ministry of Health, Eastern Province. According to the Ministry of Health, the sectors of the expatriate community and Saudi society most affected by TB are laborers, employees and housewives. Because the disease is highly infectious, medical doctors and infectious diseases specialists are warning people out there in the public. “Anybody can get the deadly tuberculosis disease if he or she happens to stand near a person coughing, sneezing, speaking and spitting who might be infected with tuberculosis. So beware of those sneezes and coughs when in public places,” a medical doctor and infectious diseases specialist said. Saad Specialist Hospital in Al-Khobar has conducted a symposium to raise awareness about TB. The hospital distributed brochures and flyers explaining the factors of disease transmission, symptoms and the apparent age of those most susceptible to infection. During the symposium, Dr. Sahar Al Dossary, a specialist at the Saad Specialist Hospital, warned that the global epidemic is growing dramatically. Given the seriousness of the disease, the hospital conducted the educational event to clarify the concept of “tuberculosis”, which can overlook the fact that many citizens can go undiagnosed and in turn also spread it unknowingly. Dr. Sahar added that “the infection is transmitted directly from patients with pulmonary TB, when they cough or sneeze, speak or spit, as they lead to the deployment of bacteria known as “TB organisms” in the air. This demonstrates the seriousness of the disease and speed in the proliferation, and the extent of threat to millions of people around the world. __
