The minister of health recently told us that poverty has so far not led to the spread of contagious diseases in the Kingdom. The minister was responding to a question following the recent visit by Crown Prince Abdullah to a poor area in Riyadh. The minister surely has reliable information and statistics about the poor which tell us exactly where they live. Judging from their medical records, he reached the conclusion that there are no contagious diseases resulting from this “phenomenon of poverty”.
If such an assurance were based on genuine statistics, then the figures should be made public. Many of the country’s rich want to know the addresses of the poor so that help could be extended to them.
But everyone knows there are no such statistics and no such information. Yet the officials continue to be obsessed with denials. Why use the word “phenomenon” to describe something that has existed for a long time? The “phenomenon” is not poverty but the sudden concern shown by the local media to a problem that has long been ignored.
There are no contagious diseases resulting from poverty for the simple reason that the poor have no chance of going to hospital for treatment. And even if they did, they are asked to go to other medical centers, given painkillers and sedatives or given appointments to see a doctor at the most inconvenient times.
The ministry seems to be more concerned with such problems as obesity, which results from incorrect eating habits. It has even drawn up a plan for combating obesity. What about a plan for those who do not have enough to eat?
Officials need not jump to deny facts when the problem is simply that there has been neither investigation nor study dealing with the link between poverty and contagious diseases.
Arab News From the Local Press 2 December 2002
