JEDDAH, 11 September 2004 — No Rift Valley Fever (RVF) cases have so far been reported among humans in the southern Jizan region, the Health Ministry announced yesterday.
“We have inspected all patients admitted to King Fahd Hospital in Jizan and the General Hospital in Aaridha. We did not find any suspected RVF cases among them,” said Dr. Tariq ibn Ahmed Madani, an internist and adviser to Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie.
Madani was a member of the ministry’s team who recently visited the region on the instructions of Al-Manie following reports that five animals in the region tested positive for the deadly virus.
Dr. Yaaqub Al-Mazroue, assistant deputy health minister for preventive medicine, also visited Jizan soon after reports of fresh RVF outbreak in the region.
Mazroue inspected the arrangements made by the Health Ministry to prevent the spread of the disease as well as the progress of work at disease combat centers.
Madani said his team checked all the files of patients admitted at Jizan hospitals for the past three months to make sure whether they were infected with RVF virus or not.
The team also visited the laboratory of the Agriculture Ministry and met with veterinarians and other experts there as well as the areas where the five cases were reported.
“The results of field trips and clinical tests have proved that there are no suspected RVF cases among humans in the region,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Madani as saying.
Madani also said there were no deaths or abortions among cattle in the region as a result of the RVF breakout. He said the intensity of mosquitoes had been brought down as a result of continuous spraying of insecticides. “We have also intensified health awareness campaign among Jizan people,” the official said, adding that the authorities had taken precautions to prevent the spread of the disease.
Agriculture Minister Dr. Fahd Balghaneim reported on Monday that five animals in Jizan — four in Abu Areesh and one in Aaridah — tested positive of RVF during periodic examinations. “These positive results from the tests do not mean that the situation in the region has reached epidemic proportions,” Balghaneim said.
The minister urged the authorities to be cautious about the RVF virus, which is capable of surviving in the eggs of mosquitoes for a long time and can surface whenever its finds a hospitable environment.
The Agriculture Ministry has set up an early warning unit to monitor and contain infectious diseases affecting agricultural and animal resources in certain regions before they spread to other parts of the Kingdom.
RVF primarily affects animals but occasionally causes illness in humans, where it leads to high morbidity and mortality.
