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Stricter tuberculosis requirements for people who want to work in Norway

Åshild Bruun-Gundersen .Photo: Progress Party / Fredrik Juel Hagen

The Government proposes to extend the requirement for a health examination for persons who are to reside in Norway. The goal is to uncover tuberculosis.

The requirement will apply to people from risk countries who travel to Norway to work as self-employed, hired employees, employees in the health and school sector and au pair.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health at all times assesses which country has a high incidence of tuberculosis and which is to be covered by the requirement for examination. Today, 114 countries in the world apply.

“Tuberculosis has been eradicated in Norway, but we are no longer going to Lithuania to find countries where one is exposed to infection,” says Frps health policy spokeswoman Åshild Bruun-Gundersen.

There are people who can pose a serious risk of transmitting infectious disease in their work, especially for healthcare professionals and teachers or others who have close contact with children are to be tested.

“Only among au pairs have we had 77 cases of infection between 2008 and 2017. If a foreign substitute in the health sector is infected with multi-resistant tuberculosis, the consequences could be catastrophic,” she says.

The changes in the Disease Control Act are being discussed by Parliament, and will be debated on 7 June.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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