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The Gulf Today reported that the Federal National Council signed off on the revised legislation governing control of communicable diseases, which sharpens existing provisions from the 2014 statute to deter deliberate transmission while expanding obligations on medical staff and families. Under the changes, any person aware of carrying a listed infection who then behaves in a manner likely to pass it on faces imprisonment for as long as four years together with a fine between Dh50,000 and Dh100,000. Repeat violations trigger doubled sanctions, and a resulting fatality can bring a life sentence, according to the published summary of the approved draft.
Healthcare professionals now operate under tighter reporting windows, the same outlet noted. Doctors, pharmacists and other clinicians must notify authorities of suspected cases within eight hours or risk fines ranging from Dh30,000 to Dh100,000, with additional penalties attached to delays involving diseases on secondary schedules. The measure seeks to close gaps that could allow outbreaks to gain momentum before intervention becomes possible.
Parents or guardians who decline or overlook mandatory childhood immunisations will incur fines of Dh5,000 to Dh20,000, The Gulf Today stated in its coverage of the legislative session. This provision reinforces long-standing vaccination drives that have already driven childhood communicable-disease rates to very low levels across the federation. A 2013 analysis published in the International Journal of Epidemiology attributed those low rates directly to high immunisation uptake maintained over decades.
The amendments arrive after the UAE recorded one of the world’s strongest pandemic performances, a Springer Nature chapter on infectious disease in the UAE health system found. By November 2021 the country had administered at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose to 100 percent of its population, producing a mortality rate of only 0.24 percent, among the lowest recorded globally. Over 186 million tests had identified more than one million cases by that point, yet strict protocols kept fatalities minimal.
Antimicrobial resistance remains a parallel concern addressed indirectly by the stronger reporting rules, the same Springer Nature assessment indicated. As of 2020 roughly 35 percent of common pathogens isolated in the UAE exhibited multi-drug resistance, 4.6 percent showed extensive drug resistance and 0.7 percent registered pan-drug resistance. National surveillance begun in Abu Dhabi in 2010 and extended federation-wide in 2015 supplied the data that underscored the need for tighter controls on infectious-disease pathways.
The updated statute also dovetails with wider Gulf Cooperation Council efforts to harmonise border health measures under the International Health Regulations of 2005, UAE legislation records show. A 2022 Cabinet Resolution endorsed a manual of unified procedures at GCC ports, airports and land crossings aimed at preventing imported infections and improving emergency response. The Federal National Council’s action therefore forms one element in a continuing regional architecture built to protect public health against both deliberate and accidental transmission risks.
