RIYADH, 25 July — Authorities have upgraded health measures on the border with Iraq to guard the Kingdom against a new outbreak of Rift Valley Fever, Health Minister Osama Shubokshi has said.
He said the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned the Kingdom four days ago to take precautionary measures against the disease after a number of cases were reported in Iraq.
An Iraqi Agriculture Ministry official, however, said “Iraq had not been affected by Rift Valley Fever... and had taken all preventative measures to stop the entry of this disease” into the country.
The official described the WHO caution as “completely baseless”, Al-Rafidain newspaper said. Rift Valley Fever claimed 124 lives in Saudi Arabia from first reports of an outbreak in September until May. A total of 884 people contracted the disease in the Kingdom, according to official reports. More than 100 people also died in Yemen from the disease.
Shubokshi ruled out in a statement to Arab News any “direct coordination with Iraq” to fight the disease, adding that Riyadh has completed necessary measures along the border with its northern neighbor.
Saudi Arabia has already banned the entry of animals from Iraq, and border guards and customs officers are on alert, the minister said. No new cases of the fever have been reported in the Kingdom, he added.
Shubokshi expressed his confidence that the disease would not spread to the Kingdom due to absence of swamps, rains and mosquitoes that disseminate the virus.
Symptoms include haemorrhagic fever, encephalitis and eye problems, although human deaths are supposed to be rare, according to experts.
The virus is usually contracted from mosquitoes, or by contact with the blood, body fluids or organs of infected animals.
