RIYADH, 23 August 2004 — A mass vaccination campaign against polio covering 800,000 children under the age of five will be launched in two phases in six regions of the Kingdom starting from Sept. 11.
Announcing this to Arab News, Dr. Amin Mishkhes, director of infectious diseases at the Ministry of Health, said the regions to be covered include Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Asir, Najran and Jizan. The second dose would be administered on Oct. 9.
He said that even though the Kingdom was declared free of poliomyelitis in 1995, the vaccination program is continued as a precautionary measure, especially as millions of pilgrims from all over the world visit the country every year.
Dr. Mishkhes said diseases like malaria and TB are staging a comeback, while newly emerging diseases, such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), bird flu, AIDS and multi-drug resistant salmonella pose new challenges to health care providers.
Another area of concern, according to Dr. Mishkhes, is environmental pollution caused by a growing number of automobiles and the industrial expansion. “This has resulted in the high incidence of bronchitis and other chest diseases,” said Dr. Mishkhes, who is the author of a 500-page book on “Infectious diseases and global changes.”
Referring to newly emerging diseases, he said international travel has added a new dimension to their proliferation. Together with the erosion of moral values, it has created a situation leading to the growing incidence of SARS, bird flue, AIDS and multi-drug resistant salmonella.
The official said heavy reliance on antibiotics has produced a new strain of bacteria that is resistant to them.
“To some extent the change in lifestyle is responsible for the emergence of these diseases. If people lead a more active life, do regular exercise and eat a balanced diet instead of the junk food, it would make a significant difference in the control of these diseases.”
He said besides environmental pollution, the human factor has also been responsible for the re-emergence of diseases like plague, Ebola virus, influenza and TB. An important element is the population growth that has caused the shift in population from rural to urban areas. Overcrowding, lack of proper sanitation and sewage in densely populated areas as well as close contact with cattle and poultry have caused a surge in diseases like the Rift Valley Fever, dengue fever, BSE, Hong Kong flu, bird flu, etc.
Dr. Mishkhes cited the case of Britain which had to spend $9 billion between 1990 and 1998 in fighting the BSE virus and related problems. Similarly, Hong Kong flu cost that state $22 million, while Peru spent $770 million in combating cholera outbreak. Much of this expenditure could have been pre-empted with proper sanitation and sewage, he pointed out.
