Jeddha, June 30 : Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah yesterday met with experts from WHO and other international agencies and discussed precautionary measures to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, such as swine flu, among pilgrims.
The experts were in the Kingdom to attend a workshop on precautionary health measures during Haj and Umrah seasons, which was organized on the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Al-Mirghalani said Al-Rabeeah briefed the experts on the measures taken by the government to protect citizens, residents and pilgrims from swine flu and other infectious diseases.
“The minister also spoke about field medical services, preventive medicine and health awareness programs,” Al-Mirghalani said, adding that he also fielded questions from experts.
“The meeting was attended by top experts in the field of fighting influenza and those specialized in viruses to set out system for monitoring and confronting infectious diseases,” the spokesman said.
“This scientific meeting will help formulate a joint global vision on the basis of scientific principles to adopt precautionary measures and provide treatment,” Al-Mirghalani said.
He said Saudi Arabia would seek to provide high-level health care services to its citizens, residents and pilgrims. “We’ll implement the resolutions taken by the workshop,” he said.
Al-Mirghalani said the experts were from the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control, the International Health Agency in the UK, Health Protection Center in Australia, Readiness and Response Center in Sweden and University of Washington.
He said Al-Rabeeah would attend some sessions of the workshop tomorrow and address a press conference at Jeddah Hilton with some of the experts.
Meanwhile, the health authorities announced the detection of seven new swine flu cases yesterday bringing the total number of cases in the Kingdom so far to 75.
The new victims included a 16-year-old Saudi boy, a 30-year-old Lebanese woman and a 28-year-old Saudi man, all of them in Riyadh; and a 28-year-old Saudi man, a 24-year-old Filipino woman and a 55-year-old Filipino man (Jubail). The seventh case is a 26-year-old Saudi man who recently returned to Najran from New Zealand.
—Agencies