General Profiles of Health Examinations of Foreign Laborers from 2001 to 2007

Li-Jue Wu

2009 Vol.25 NO.7

Correspondence Author： Li-Jue Wu

Abstract：

Taiwan began to import foreign laborers in October 1989. To prevent the importation of infectious diseases, Taiwan established regulations that required blue collar foreign laborers to receive a health examination each before entry to Taiwan, within three days after entry, and periodically thereafter. This article tracks the progression of the regulations development on the health assessment of blue collar foreign laborers and general profiles of the health examination results from 2001 to 2007. The “Regulations Governing Management of the Health Examination of Employed Aliens” was formulated and promulgated in 2004 and then amended in 2007. Changes to the policy of the health examination of foreign laborers included: canceling the urine examination of narcotics, changing the frequency of the regular health examinations from every six months to after 6, 18, and 30 months after entry for work, terminating the pregnancy test after entry, extending the re-examination deadline of parasitic infection from 30 days to 45 days, and requiring those with a positive reaction to serological tests of syphilis to complete the therapy in 30 days. The “Regulations Governing the Designation and Management of Hospitals for the Health Examination of Employed Aliens after Entry” was framed and promulgated in 2004, in which new requirements for laboratory accreditation regarding designated hospitals were included. The failure rates of foreign laborers’ regular health examination after entry between 2001 and 2003 ranged from 2.39% to 2.65%. Within the specific items of the failure rates, the failure rates of parasite screening preceded, which ranged from 2.29% to 2.45%, while the failure rates of pulmonary tuberculosis screening ranged from 0.04% to 0.06%. The failure rates of the regular health examination of foreign laborers in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 were 2.67%, 3.62%, 6.03%, and 7.48%, respectively. In these years, the failure rates of parasite screening were 2.61%, 3.53%, 5.89%, and 7.35%, respectively, while the failure rates of pulmonary tuberculosis screening were 0.05%, 0.08%, 0.12%, and 0.11%, respectively.
Keywords: foreign laborer, health examination, parasites