JEDDAH: Several insurance companies in the Kingdom have refused to cover expenses relating to treating workers affected by swine flu, saying insurance policies do not cover epidemics, earthquakes and eruption of volcanoes.

According to a report published on Friday in a local daily, private firms say that insurance companies have refused to deal with swine flu cases as it is a pandemic and has been described as such by the World Health Organization, which also raised its pandemic flu alert to Phase 6 on a six-point scale.

However, Abdul Ilah Saati, an insurance professor at King Abdulaziz University, said if the government is treating swine flu patients in both the public and private sectors, then insurance companies do not have the right to refuse treating such people.

At the same time, many insurance companies said they are not responsible for treating infected patients. Some companies said that the government is treating H1N1 cases and that, therefore, there is no need for them to cover swine flu sufferers if the patient goes for treatment to a private hospital. Dawood Yusuf, director of “DTY” Insurance Consultancy in the Gulf, which has its headquarters in Dubai, said that swine flu is already a global pandemic and very dangerous at its current stage.

“I believe insurance companies shouldn’t absolve themselves from covering any type of influenza,” he said. He added that insurance companies hold back from treating such cases due to a lack of funds to cover such pandemics, which can be expensive.

Yusuf suggested insurance companies in the future allocate part of their capital to finance programs covering the expenses involved in dealing with global epidemics and infectious diseases.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, is planning next week to raise awareness about swine flu in schools. Sources at the ministry said it is to hold a meeting regarding this on Sunday that will be attended by education officials from across the Kingdom. The meeting is being held to define a plan to launch the campaign.