CAIRO, 3 October — More than 500 Palestinians injured in Israeli gunfire during the ongoing intifada are receiving treatment at Saudi hospitals, Health Minister Dr. Osama Shubokshi disclosed here yesterday.
“We have received 16 groups of injured Palestinians, each group comprising 30 to 40 people,” the minister told a press conference at the Saudi Embassy here.
He said the Kingdom also provide ambulances, medical supplies and appliances and blood to the Palestinians.
Shubokshi said the World Health Organization’s regional committee meeting in Cairo had discussed ways of improving the health of Arab women and children and how to deal with environmental problems.
Medical and medicine security was another important topic discussed at the Cairo meeting, he said, adding that WHO meeting will discuss how to tackle the growing number of AIDS and malaria cases in the region.
Referring to health services in the Kingdom, the minister said there are 288 government hospitals, adding that the figure would reach 311 shortly.
The private sector extends 14 percent of health services in the country.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the health bulletin issued by the Riyadh-based Security Forces Hospital, Shubokshi said the rate of vaccination coverage against infectious diseases exceeded 93 percent. He said the rate of infectious disease cases in the country had fallen to all-time lows.
The minister said there are 191 modern hospitals equipped with the most advanced medical devices in addition to 1,786 primary health care centers in the Kingdom. “These hospitals are manned by skilled Saudi doctors,” he said.
Shubokshi said infant mortality in the Kingdom had dropped to 19.1 for every 1,000 babies until 2000, compared to 61.4 in 1990. Life expectancy average increased to 71.04 years compared to less than 59.1 years in 1990.
The minister said seven million people in the Kingdom would benefit from the Cooperative Health Insurance in its first phase and about 22 million Saudis and expatriates in the second phase.
Health campaign: The health service department at the armed forces will launch a month-long health awareness campaign on Sunday.
The campaign named after Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, aims at educating the public on widely spread diseases and how to take protection against them.
Dr. Abdullatif Al-Aufi, executive director of the campaign, said the event would cover most diseases throughout the Kingdom, including diabetes, hepatitis-B, heart diseases, obesity, dental diseases, malaria, Rift Valley fever, Maltese fever, tuberculosis, and epilepsy.
