MoH watches for MERS, Ebola among Haj pilgrims

Riyadh, Sep 4: As part of its strategic health program for Haj, the Ministry of Health has set up a Central Command Center to monitor the health conditions of Haj pilgrims coming from all parts of the world, a senior MoH official said here on Wednesday.

This year, the center will focus on the Ebola virus and MERS coronavirus during the pilgrimage.

“We are monitoring the movement of all incoming pilgrims at all entry points to the Kingdom with the help of our trained health officials,” Hussein Ghannam, general supervisor of the general directorate of health affairs for Haj and Umrah, said.

Ghannam was speaking to the press following the sixth meeting of the Haj preparatory committee of the MoH held on Tuesday, chaired by Mohammed Hamzah Khosheim, deputy health minister for planning and development. He added that the MoH has deployed health officials at 15 ports of entry via land, sea and air, to monitor the entry of Haj pilgrims during this season. “They are expected to take preventive and curative measures to keep infections under control.

He said that the health officials posted at the ports of entry would ensure the pilgrims had already taken the vaccination from their ports of origin as advised earlier. “If they have not done so, relevant doses will be given to them at the ports of entry so that they would be fortified with immunity against the respective diseases,” the deputy minister said. “They would be reporting any developments to the central command committee on a 24-hour basis. "

All health officials who serve the pilgrims will wear face mask during their meeting with them.

The hospitals and health care clinics in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah are fully equipped with the required manpower, ambulances, equipment and medicines for preventive and curative treatments.

The MoH, through its overseas Saudi missions, has already instructed the incoming pilgrims to produce vaccination certificates against yellow fever, meningitis, polio and influenza depending on the countries of origin. Most of the pilgrims from the African and South American continents have been advised to take vaccination against yellow fever which is endemic to these countries and vaccinations against meningitis have been made mandatory for all pilgrims since it can be spread due to congestion of people, coughing and droplets from infected people.

The official said the ministry had spelt out the quarantine regulations of the Kingdom. They include a valid certificate of vaccination against meningitis 10 days before the departure of the pilgrims to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, as well as to obtain a certificate of vaccination against polio from pilgrims coming from the disease-affected countries.