Vietnam bans HIV carriers from certain jobs
HANOI - Vietnam has banned people who
have HIV, which can lead to AIDS, from taking jobs such as
hotel workers and kindergarten teachers, the Labour Ministry
said on Monday.
A Labour Ministry official said people with the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) would also be prohibited from
working in restaurants, health care centres, vaccine production,
cosmetic surgery and beauty salons.
He said the measure only applied to Vietnamese nationals and
that people currently working in those sectors would not have
to undergo compulsory testing.
However, the official said people working in the medical
services industry were already required to have regular health
check-ups every six or 12 months that normally included an
AIDS test.
Any medical workers found to have HIV would be transferred
to jobs that had less contact with people, he told Reuters.
``These rules mainly apply to those who have already been
found with HIV. They should not be employed in jobs that
might affect the community,'' he said, without giving more
details.
It was unclear if workers seeking jobs in the stated sectors
would have to have an AIDS test before being hired.
The official Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper on Monday
said the number of people in Vietnam infected with HIV had
recently hit 16,149, of whom more than 2,900 had contracted
AIDS. Of this number, 1,509 had died, it added.
In recent years the detection of HIV and AIDS in
communist-ruled Vietnam has risen sharply, although foreign
health workers believe the incidence of HIV infection is much
higher than the official figures.
Vietnam, with a population of 79 million, has a thriving
prostitution industry and a growing drug-use problem.
Reuters - October 25, 1999.
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