The Minister of Health in Saudi Arabia
cuts all the rumors and doubts about the safety of the pilgrimage this year with a detailed report,
and he assured that this year's pilgrimage is free from any epidemic diseases or
quarantine and that all pilgrims are healthy and well.
He stated: "giving effect to
the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Crown Prince God bless them to provide the best
medical services to the pilgrims to enable them to perform the rituals easily,
and the state provided the potential generous, and taken the preventive
measures and technical preparations needed for the pilgrimage season. Based on
the results of the field survey, and after reviewing the reports of health
committees, he announced with his great pleasure the health safety of the
pilgrimage this year, and is free from epidemic diseases and quarantine."
He pointed some of the measures taken by
the ministry during the Hajj season:
1- The Ministry of Health used more
than 24800 health workers, technical and administrative, as part of a system of
health services, which included twenty-five 25 hospitals with a capacity of
clinical total of 5250 beds, including a 550-bed intensive care, and a 550-emergency-beds,
and 141 health centers, and 16 centers health emergency in the Jamarat area,
and a two central ambulance stations in Al-Haram Al-Sharif, and 18 medical points
on both sides of the train stations.
2- The application of health conditions on all the pilgrims coming from
outside the kingdom, in order to reduce the chances of infections from epidemic
diseases, and the early intensification of Epidemiological Surveillance with 15
centers to monitor health of the pilgrims, distributed across all land and sea
ports and airports, with specialized teams to provide the vaccine and
preventive treatment for more than 690 thousand pilgrims against meningitis and
polio.
3- The Government with coordination between the Health Ministry and the
competent authorities to stop issuing visas for Hajj and Umrah, from a number
of West African States immediately after the outbreak of the "Ebola" disease
in them.
4- Upgrading the devices in hospitals in the holy sites and Makkah, and
increase the capacity of intensive care services and hospital rooms to isolate
the patients with an increase of 40%
from last season, in addition to providing a mobile laboratory and blood banks,
and the development of therapeutic services of sections of the heart and
dialysis services kidney and critical care in all health facilities.
5-The coordination between the Ministry of Health and all the partner health
sectors in the pilgrimage season, The Ministry of Defense, The Ministry of the
Interior and The Saudi Red Crescent Authority will continue to come with a system of health care services
in the pilgrimage integrated and consistent performance to serve the pilgrims,
as well as coordination with the rest of partners like the Ministry of
municipal and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Hajj, the Ministry of culture and
Information and the rest of other government agencies for their important role
in this area.
The Minister of Health also stated
that the ministry through its facilities, and since the beginning of the season
so far, provided a variety of services to more than 472,000 pilgrims,
including; Health centers more than 329 thousand pilgrims, Outpatient hospital about
111 thousand pilgrims, The emergency departments nearly 28 thousand pilgrims.
He also noted that they had been
providing remedial service for more than 16 thousand in the field by emergency
teams and medical field, while the Ministry provided 19 thousand units of blood
and blood products from all factions, pointing to conduct 19 open-heart
surgeries and 330 process cardiac catheterization and 988 hearing dialysis and
55 Binoculars from the digestive system.
And responding to the question
about the "Ebola", he said that there hasn't been any monitoring of
any Ebola cases, only 170 suspected case has been handled with extreme caution
and complete isolating, and he said: "We deal with high sensitivity and
caution to prove our analysis that the suspects are not in possession of these
epidemic diseases."