The minister of health said the workshop was organized under the instructions of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. He added that the ministry has set up a national committee made up of officials from several government departments to take measures to combat the illness.

Assistant Undersecretary for Preventive Medicine at the Health Ministry Ziyad Maimish said at the workshop that Al-Khurma is an emerging tick-borne hemorrhagic fever that is unique to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“It was for the first time found in 1994 in the Al-Khurma district of Taif and since then a number of cases were found in Makkah, Jeddah and Najran,” he said, adding that from 1994 until 2003 31 people have been found to have the illness in the Kingdom.

On Jan. 12, the Directorate of Health Affairs in Jeddah warned the public, particularly people who deal with cattle or meat, about the fever following the discovery of four confirmed cases of the virus in Jeddah. “The major symptoms of the disease include fever accompanied by body pains and headaches for three to eight days, rashes or nose bleeds and blood in the urine or stool,” said Director of Health Affairs in Jeddah Sami Badawood.