Qatar's Permanent Population Committee has said the country is not well equipped to deal with medical emergencies such as epidemic outbreaks, mainly due to the lack of proper laboratories in the country, the Peninsula has reported. A report by the committee revealed the major challenge for the health sector in Qatar is to curb the spread of diseases resulting from the influx of a large expatriate workforce into the country and the subsequent growth in population. In this context, the report said that the country was not fully equipped to deal with the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009. In the absence of advanced laboratories, blood samples were being sent abroad for confirmatory tests, the report said.