Riyadh, June 24: As part of the ongoing urgent measures to combat swine flu, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health is set to present a comprehensive precautionary plan to the Royal Court for final approval.
The ministry has also constituted an extensive scientific committee to take up urgent steps within the coming fortnight. This was disclosed by Dr. Khaled Al Zahrani, assistant undersecretary for preventive medicine at the ministry.
While speaking, Dr. Khaled said that the minister of health had issued directive to constitute a committee to explore ways to prevent a possible outbreak of swine flu among millions of Haj and Umrah pilgrims this year as four new cases were detected in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah this week.
A nine-year-old Malaysian boy was found infected in a hotel near Makkah’s Haram Mosque on Wednesday while three Saudi children in Madinah were diagnosed with the H1N1 virus on Thursday, according to a health ministry statement.
More than four million Umrah pilgrims are expected to come over to the Kingdom in the coming three months until the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which will begin late September. The Umrah season will be followed by the arrival of some three million Haj pilgrims.
Meanwhile, the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah is going to host an international conference on swine flu next month.
“The conference is set to work out an effective mechanism to tackle the disease. Several prominent experts from the World Health Organisation and other international organisations will attend the event,” said Dr. Khaled.
“There will be a special workshop on the sidelines of the conference that will be focused on the comprehensive national plan being implemented by the Ministry of Health with the participation of all the health sectors in various regions of the Kingdom, especially at the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. This was in line with the directive of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to take all the possible steps to ensure all the people in the Kingdom as well as the Haj and Umrah pilgrims free from the deadly disease,” he said.
In another development, the Gulf Cooperation Council will start implementing a joint plan to deal with the H1N1 virus, said Dr. Ziyad Ahmad Mumaish, director of the Gulf Center for Combating Epidemic.
The plan includes intensifying monitoring at all the entry points to the GCC states, stockpiling of doses of the antiviral medication Tamiflu, and stepping up of efforts for preventive vaccination against seasonal flu. The plan will be implemented in cooperation with the health and non-health sectors in the member states,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Abdullah Al Oqail, member of the scientific committee at the Saudi ministry of health, Tamiflu vaccination costs SR 150. It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Alu Al Shaikh recently issued a religious edict (Fatwa) banning travel to countries affected by swine flu.
-Agencies