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MANILA, Philippines?An overseas Filipino workers? group in the Middle East called on the government on Thursday to protect Filipinos from being discriminated against as carriers of the dreaded Influenza A (H1N1) virus.
"The OFW communities here in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East are fearful and uneasy, especially since the first case of the Influenza A (H1N1) came from us Filipinos," Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said in answer to an email query.
Monterona was asked to comment on reports that the Saudi government confirmed on Wednesday that a sick Filipino nurse who arrived in Riyadh Friday last week was the kingdom's first case of the disease.
There are an estimated two million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia and about a million more in the rest of the Middle East.
Monterona, who is based in Riyadh, said the Philippine government should issue health advisories through the Philippine posts in the region and launch a campaign in the OFW sector on how to avoid the novel flu virus.
The Department of Health should also consider sending its health experts to countries where H1N1 flu cases among OFWs would be reported to ensure prompt and proper medical treatment of Filipinos, Monterona said.
"We appeal for the government to make proper representation and to closely collaborate with the host government in this matter," he added.
Migrante-ME, in a statement Thursday morning, earlier called on the Arroyo administration to put on hold the export of OFWs amid the rising number of H1N1 flu infections around the world.
