Ebola and MERS ‘key challenge’ for ministry

Tackling the Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) diseases remain the major focus of the Ministry of Health this Haj season, a senior official from the ministry in Makkah said.
Anis Sindhi, adviser to the minister of health and deputy chairman of the ministry’s central command center, was speaking on behalf of Acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih at a conference in Makkah that discussed ways of protecting Haj pilgrims from infectious diseases.
“While trying to prevent all infectious diseases during this pilgrimage, our focus is on Ebola and the MERS coronavirus diseases, which have shaken up some parts of the globe,” Sindhi said.
He said the central command center, set up three months ago, has chalked out a comprehensive program to overcome these challenges.
He said that pilgrims from the three Ebola-hit countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — were not being allowed to perform Haj this year. The ministry has also issued a travel advisory with respect to these three countries.
“Supported by our own experience in the Kingdom, we also follow the guidelines set by the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention based in Atlanta.”
The two-day meeting, held under the patronage of Fakeih, was organized by the Makkah health department at the Noor Specialist Hospital.
Local and foreign delegates addressed the meeting.
Tariq Madani, chairman of the ministry’s MERS control and prevention committee, said that public support had helped reduced the number of MERS cases in the Kingdom.
“We should not be complacent with this situation. We should work hard to create wider public awareness to combat the disease,” he said.
Madani reaffirmed the link between MERS and camels after research proved that viruses isolated from a Saudi patient and his camel were 100 percent similar.