Gorecho
It is a well-known fact that seafaring is one of the most hazardous occupations, in regards to personal health and safety concerns of seafarers.
Apart from accidents, seafarers are prone to certain serious diseases and health hazards due to the nature of onboard work, change in climatic conditions, type of cargo carried, working hours, materials being handled, epidemic and endemic diseases, personal habits, etc.
Because of their nature of work, seafarers are bound to visit many ports in different parts of the world and are thus exposed to various pandemic and epidemic diseases.
For a sick seafarer to be entitled to medical benefits under the POEA-Standard Employment Contract (SEC), he must have suffered work-related illness, which is defined as any sickness resulting to disability or death as a result of one of the 24 occupational diseases listed under Section 32-A of the said contract with the conditions set therein satisfied.
The list includes an infectious disease that a seafarer may suffer during the effectivity of his contract which is defined as a disease resulting from the presence and activity of pathogenic microbial agents in the body.
These agents include pathogenic viruses, pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites, and aberrant proteins known as prions.
Infectious diseases are recognized as an occupational hazard in seafaring and are closely connected to the conditions of working and living onboard.
These may either result from person-to-person transmission of infectious agents or through food, water or insects onboard ships or in ports, as well as from pre-existing conditions.
The seafarer may suffer any of the following Infections: (a) Pneumonia, (b) Bronchitis, (c) Sinusitis, (d) Pulmonary (e) Tuberculosis, (f) Anthrax, (g) Cellulitis, (h) Conjunctivitis (Bacterial and Viral), (i) Norwalk Virus, (j) Salmonella, (k) Leptospirosis, (l) Malaria, (m) Otitis Media,(o) Tetanus, (p) Viral Encephalitis.
The list also contains other infections resulting in complications necessitating repatriation.
Most infections relentlessly find entry points to human populations through diverse mechanisms. Respiratory diseases are commonly acquired by contact with aerosolized droplets, spread by sneezing, coughing, talking, kissing or even singing e.g. bronchitis, PTB, pneumonia, sinusitis, pneumonia.
Gastrointestinal diseases are often acquired by ingesting contaminated food and water e.g. Norwalk Virus, Salmonella, Leptospirosis.
Others may be due to contact with animals/insects/bacteria e.g Malaria, Conjunctivitis (Bacterial and Viral), Tetanus, anthrax.
The seafarer is required to prove that: (1) he suffered an illness; (2) he suffered this illness during the term of his employment contract; (3) he complied with the procedures prescribed under Section 20-B; (4) his illness is one of the enumerated occupational disease or that his illness or injury is otherwise work-related. A seafarer suffering from any of the infections would still have to satisfy four (4) conditions before his or her disease may be compensable:
1.The seafarer’s work must involve the risks describe therein;
2. The disease was contracted as a result of the seafarer’s exposure to the described risks;
3. The disease was contracted within a period of exposure and under such factors necessary to contract it; and
4. There was no notorious negligence on the part of the seafarer.
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