RIYADH, 17 September 2006 — Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie said yesterday that the Kingdom would soon be malaria-free due to the successful public campaign and the efforts extended by government agencies in fighting the disease.
“We expect the Kingdom to be malaria-free within a short period of time,” he said, adding that the public campaign that was being carried out by several government agencies were already reaping its fruits. The minister said that no reports of malaria had been reported in Jizan after floods hit many parts of the city last month.
Speaking to reporters after opening the first Saudi-European medical meeting, the minister said that despite the fact that the rate of Saudization was high for doctors, it was still low for nurses. “The Saudization rate in the nursing field has gone up to 30 percent from what it was before — 20 percent,” he pointed out.
Asked about the ministry’s plans to increase that rate, he said: “This year we are expecting 5,000 women to graduate from our medical colleges.”
He also said that three new medical colleges would be opened this year. The minister said he was proud to have been present at the first meeting between medical experts from Europe and Saudi Arabia at which both sides could learn from one another.
He also said the government had gone a long way in creating adequate medical infrastructure in the country, noting that “the first medical college opened in the Kingdom in 1967 and now there are 15 all over the country.”
He also said the Kingdom and Europe shared a long history in medical cooperation. “Saudi Arabia and Europe have been cooperating in medical fields for decades. Many of the Kingdom’s doctors are graduates sent to study in Europe and who graduated from European medical colleges. Now, 80 percent of the doctors in the Kingdom’s hospitals are Saudi nationals.”
Dr. Al-Manie said that when medical experts decided to call the Kingdom “Kingdom of Humanity,” it was for a good reason — due to the humane gestures the Kingdom has shown worldwide in the medical field.
He noted the example of how the King Abdul Aziz Medical City at the National Guard Hospital has now become a global leader in separating conjoined twins.
“Those operations were not just for Saudis, but for foreign nationals as well,” he said, stressing the generosity of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah who asked the hospital to perform the necessary operations. He said the Kingdom wanted to “catch up” with what it had missed before in medical expertise from around the world and he lauded the efforts of the government in that respect.
Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Dukhayyil, director general of medical affairs in Riyadh, said the aim of the three-day conference was to exchange medical knowledge with European and Saudi doctors. He also said that in addition to the lectures, several workshops would be held in various fields as well as joint operations. “It is an opportunity for strengthening friendship between doctors here and those abroad,” he said.
The conference was attended yesterday by over 1,000 male and female medical experts from Europe and the Middle East. The meeting is being held under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
