Medical examinations for military service in Cape Verde will pay more attention to chronic diseases rather than infectious diseases, which have disappeared over the years, according to a decree published Thursday in the Official Gazette.
“These pathologies, which occupied a prominent place in the old table, no longer had the priority they had to give way to new pathologies,” such as diabetes, hypertension, rheumatic diseases and oncological diseases, the government listed in a document that Lusa reviewed this Friday .
More attention will also be paid to mental and psychological diseases, as well as spinal and dental diseases.
According to the resolution, the executive branch has established that the prevalence of infectious diseases has “significantly decreased”; many have practically disappeared “from the list of sanitary and hygienic diseases” in the country, and therefore in the Armed Forces.
“It is extremely important to adopt specific criteria for admission and recruitment into special units, such as the Marine Corps or Special Operations, as well as for military personnel in the air (pilots, aircraft crews) and maritime sectors,” states the resolution signed by the Minister of National Defense, Jeanine Lelis .
Six tables containing 320 diseases, which were to be assessed by the health inspection commissions of the armed forces, were approved in 1978 and remained unchanged as legal instruments for conducting classification and selection tests.
In Cape Verde, military service is compulsory, but can also be done on a voluntary or contract basis.
The medical screening of recruits came under scrutiny in October after a recruit died from an underlying illness that was not detected during screening.
At that time, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, António Duarte Monteiro, had already mentioned that the institution was evaluating the implementation of new tests and carrying out specific observations of candidates with signs of certain diseases.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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