Ways to protect employer Sick/pregnant maids

If you are thinking of taking on a new maid, particularly of child bearing age, make sur she has a medical, blood and urine tests will determine if she is pregnant, or indeed suffering from any other illness, such as anaemia, diabetes, syphilis or gonnorrhoea,Aids, chest exray will rule out lung disease such as TB, there are lots of other tests you can have for your prospective maid to protect yourself in the long run, igoodlink.com do these tests and maid insurance. and do not sign any contract until you are happy with the results which are always sent to the employer to be. The employer pays for these tests but it will save a lot of worry in the future if you find out any problems first. If you still have concerns employ an older maid, past child bearing age but still have the tests done especially if the maid is looking after children, to prevent them passing on any illness.

Wow susie 1 I'm astounded thank god all employers don't think this way and only employ women past child bearing age. Mind you if they did there would be little need for helpers in the first place.....

Yikes, half the male bankers in this town would be unemployable if their employers applied such ludicrous testing.


Come on people, we're getting a tad silly here. Pregnancy, sure, it'd be a pain to find your helper was requiring 'help' herself. Are we really so close minded to generalise that there is a high prevalence of disease amongst domestic helpers?


I'd check your own glass house before throwing stones.

Hepatitis

TB

these are very prevalent diseases in Asia as a whole. Be very careful of TB because some are resistant to antibiotics.

I'm all for testing the helper for disease prior to final acceptance of the contract. But I have never worried about diseases being transmitted to us. The whole initial post seems a bit alarmist.


Also, venereal diseases don't just jump from one person to another. If someone in the employer's family gets syphilis from a helper there are bigger issues than just the disease...

I would like to add that a general blood, urine and chest xray, costs approx HK$1000, ok so the tests do include the above elements i mentioned at the start of this thread, and yes the tests might find out a prospective helper has a disease they even didn't know about, but it would at least give them chance to get cured if for instance they were just anaemic due to lack of good diet, or be cured of TB if it is not a drug resistant strain, it is more prevelant in less medically advanced countries foreign workers come from, and is still very contageous. If the helper happened to show a positive pregnancy test prior to employer signing contract, then the employer could decide whether to sign or not, it would prevent some of the little surprises just a few months into the contract! I also read on this forum some months ago an employers concern when they found out their helper was HIV positive, if they had known that before employing her to look after their child they would not have had to worry, or they could have asked her to take extra special care when handling the child. Untreated syphilus and gonorrhea can cause long term health problems and makes the person feel ill, so they are going to need treating at some time,

As far as my coment about taking on above child bearing age helpers was concerned, that would only relieve the concern about the patter of tiny feet, partly a joke. It gives the employer more confidence to know the helper is fit from the start, and re-assuring for the helper too. when I took on my helper I was happy her results were good, as was she, but if they had shown up a minor illness I would have still taken her on, and got her cured.

I think it's only natural to want to know about the health condition of someone who will be living in your house for long term whose medical history you don't know, especially if you have pregnant women/young children, etc., and the best way to have that knowledge is to do the tests as suggested by Sussie.

is it okay to advertise in threads like this?