Fifteen health ministers from various parts of the world will attend the Second World Congress on Mass Gathering Medicine, which begins in the Saudi capital Saturday.
The three-day conference, hosted by the Kingdom, is being organized by the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO). The conference will discuss, among other topics, the MERS coronavirus.
The conference is also expected to be attended by the secretary-general of the Arab League, the GCC secretary-general, the WHO director general and the regional director of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Office in Alexandria.
Health ministers participating in the congress will represent the United States, France, Cuba, Canada, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia and South Korea.
Arrangements are being overseen by a high-powered committee headed by Ziad Al-Memish, undersecretary for public health at the Ministry of Health. Several subcommittees were also formed to ensure that arrangements are in place for the event.
Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah thanked Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for extending his support for the event.
Al-Memish said the conference would study the results of scientific experiments initiated in mass gatherings, which would help in dealing with health measures during the Umrah and Haj seasons.
The Kingdom, he said, will be in a position to project its experience in handling mass gatherings and looking after health care needs. “International experts can throw more light on our experiences for the benefit of other participating countries,” he noted.
Deputy Health Minister for Health Affairs Mansour Al-Hawasi said that the conference was being held under the national strategic health plan of the Kingdom and stressed that the Saudi leadership had lent unlimited support for the success of the program.
The first conference on the impact of mass gatherings on public health was held in Jeddah in 2010 under the aegis of King Abdullah. It was attended by more than 500 experts and specialists and 30 speakers from all over the world.
A Kingdom-based international referential entity specialized in mass gathering medicine has been established with the aim of coming up with classification and definition of concepts, tasks and activities related to mass health management. It shall also be responsible for spreading the culture, programs and regulations of mass gathering health, all of which are based on the premise of considerable, fact-based research.
The conference adopted the Jeddah Declaration on mass gathering health, the first regional and global declaration emphasizing the importance of providing holistic and health care services to beneficiaries.
Strategies and benefits for upgrading mass gathering medicine worldwide were the most tangible outcomes of the conference, Al-Memish said, emphasizing the need to establish an international reference authority on mass gathering medicine, preferably based in the Kingdom.
This authority would be commissioned with several tasks, including classifying and defining terminology, developing mass gathering health culture, developing programs and systems based on the results of established research, conducting in-depth analytical studies on all aspects of mass gathering health, and creating a database to study and monitor the present situation to assess the extent of progress achieved in embedding this concept.
“The recommendations also called for feedback and futuristic studies, adopting measures to redress health systems at national, regional and international levels, providing consultations and advice to various countries to develop mass gathering health plans and programs and exchanging successful experiences in the area of mass gathering health in cooperation with international agencies and organizations,” Al-Memish said.
Experts to learn from KSA’s experience in mass gathering medicine
