July 26, 2002 BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thailand faces a growing problem of contagious diseases brought in by migrant workers from neighboring countries, a health official said Friday.
An annual health check of around 450,000 registered alien workers showed 5,305 infected with contagious diseases including tuberculosis, syphilis, leprosy and elephantiasis, said Stunt Kongkhuntod, a researcher at Thailand's Health Ministry.
In results released February, 2001, the ministry had found 2,010 foreign workers out of 108,603 surveyed infected with some kind of disease.
Suthat called the rise "quite worrying" because diseases such as leprosy, TB and elephantiasis were almost totally eradicated from Thailand more than a decade ago.
The results did not include testing for HIV, which is handled by a separate section of the Health Ministry than the one that conducted the survey. However, HIV is considered to be a homegrown problem in Thailand and not one that enters the country via migrant workers.
Most of those tested in the Jan. 15-to-April 25 survey came from Myanmar, which accounted for 362,082 workers, while 40,265 came from Cambodia; 40,033 from Laos and 6,111 laborers from other countries including Bangladesh, China and Russia.
Suthat said the number of cases has increased steadily in line with a growing demand for foreign laborers.
Foreign workers are usually relegated to low-paying and unpleasant jobs Thais are reluctant to take. But foreign workers still consider them to be better opportunities than those in their own countries -especially in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, also known as Burma.
There are estimated to be more than 1 million foreign workers in Thailand, which has a population of 62 million.
For health and social reasons - including the fear that they might never leave - the Thai government several years ago began registering unskilled foreign workers and limiting the professions and areas where they could work. Less than half the estimated total are registered, although failing to do so makes the others subject to legal penalties and deportation.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
