JEDDAH, 17 October 2005 — Saudi Arabia is stocking up on antiviral drugs to counter any bird flu outbreak in the country, including the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, which host millions of pilgrims from around the world each year.
“Health Minister Dr. Hamad Al-Manie has ordered the purchase of adequate quantity of the drug Tamiflu in preparation to confront the epidemic,” said Dr. Khaled Al-Mirghalani, the ministry’s spokesman.
“Workers in all Makkah hospitals and health centers, as well as people working at the holy mosques in Makkah and Madinah, will be given the drug if any outbreak occurs,” he said.
Priority groups for vaccination would also include people most likely to be exposed to the virus — those close to an outbreak, workers on chicken farms, the elderly or sick and those working in clinics set up to test for bird flu cases.
Mirghalani said a committee comprising representatives from the ministries of health, agriculture and municipality and the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development has been set up to take coordinated measures to prevent bird flu spreading in the Kingdom.
“We have also readied the central laboratory in Riyadh and regional laboratory in Jeddah to test samples from suspected cases,” he said.
Mirghalani said containment measures in the event of bird flu reaching the Kingdom would include travel restrictions, closing schools and quarantining those involved in an outbreak for seven days.
Experts fear the H5N1 virus, which has killed more than 60 people and caused the death of millions of birds in Asia since 2003, could mutate and spread among humans, creating a pandemic that might kill tens of millions of people.
So far that person-to-person transmission has not happened and there are no reports that birds in Saudi Arabia have been infected with H5 or any of its variants. But Saudi officials are taking precautions ahead of the huge influx of pilgrims.
Makkah hosts millions of pilgrims from across the globe all year round but the largest numbers — around two million — come for the Haj, which will take place in the second week of January.
Fears of a bird flu outbreak this year will bring extra concern to health officials who shoulder the stupendous task of providing medical care to the large number of pilgrims from different parts of the world.
