Assessment of Compulsory Examination for Typhoid Fever, Paratyphoid Fever And Bacillary Dysentery in Indonesian Migrant Labors

Assessment of Compulsory Examination for Typhoid Fever, Paratyphoid Fever And Bacillary Dysentery in Indonesian Migrant Labors

Typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and bacillary dysentery are enteric infectious diseases which occur commonly in area under poor sanitary conditions or without tap water supply, and are also endemic in tropical and subtropical region. A typhoid fever outbreak related to Indonesian migrant labors occurred in Taiwan in 2009, so Taiwan government had implemented the health examination of typhoid fever within 3 days of arrival for Indonesian migrant labors since Oct 15, 2009. Many Indonesian migrant labors were found infected with bacillary dysentery through stool examination for typhoid fever. As a result, the examination of paratyphoid fever and bacillary dysentery were also included in Indonesian migrant labors' health examination within 3 days of arrival since Oct 15, 2011. We assessed the epidemiology of the three enteric infectious diseases among foreign labors in Taiwan during 2012 and 2017. Before implementing the examination policy, the majority of Indonesian migrant labors with enteric infections could not be notified until they sought medical treatment for illness, which could lead to disease spread in community. After policy implementation, the infected cases could be identified through health examination, especially for bacillary dysentery. The possibility of community spread could be lowered with immediate preventive measures by public health bureaus. In 2012–2017 the annual average number of confirmed aforementioned enteric infection among Indonesian migrant labors identified by health examination within 3 days of arrival was 82, which was about 95.5% of all confirmed imported enteric infection among Indonesian migrant labors. This showed that the policy was effective in reducing the risk of domestic epidemics of enteric infection.