JEDDAH, 6 November — Pediatricians and child-health experts from the Kingdom are being joined by their counterparts from North America, Europe and Australia for a three-day conference which opened here yesterday to discuss problems associated with children’s health and the search for cures for newly discovered diseases.
The conference was opened by Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed, who said the government will continue to provide all assistance to child development programs. He also noted that children constitute half of the country’s population.
"Your role in protecting children’s health is vital, since the children are the basis for any future development," the prince told the delegates.
The meetings are being organized by the Saudi Pediatric Society, the Federation of Arab Pediatric Societies and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"This is a unique opportunity to meet with colleagues from all over the world to catch up with the latest scientific and clinical developments and present contributions toward improving care of child in the Arab world," said SPA President Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Suwailem.
The participants will present more than 80 papers covering the effect on modern communications — including television and the Internet — on children, AIDS and childhood, new diseases among Arab children, early hospital discharge for healthy term infants, recent advances in diabetes mellitus, new approaches to prevention of genetic diseases in Saudi Arabia, and challenges facing organ transplantation in children.
According to Dr. Sami Al-Hajjar, head of the pediatric infectious diseases and director of pediatric fellowship program at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, of all the infectious diseases first recognized in the 20th century, AIDS has had the most profound effect on human illnesses and death.
