RIYADH, 4 December 2007 — The World Health Organization has been closely monitoring the bird flu outbreak in Saudi Arabia and the country’s readiness to fight the disease, a senior WHO official said yesterday.
“The Saudi Ministry of Agriculture is doing its best to prevent the spread of disease from birds to humans,” said Dr. Awad Abu Zeid Mukhtar, WHO representative for Eastern Mediterranean Region. “The Kingdom is doing well to check the spread of disease without the help of WHO at the moment, but we are keenly observing the situation.”
Mukhtar said the WHO holds seminars and workshops on avian flu in different countries in the region.
“An important workshop on bird flu for the Gulf states will be organized in Bahrain shortly,” he said. “We are quite satisfied with the national plan of Saudi Arabia for controlling any pandemic, if it occurs.”
John Jabbour, a medical consultant for emerging diseases at the WHO office for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement that his team was reviewing the contingency plans of countries in the region.
Asked about the cases of bird flu registered in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and what measures WHO had taken to check the spread of the disease, Mukhtar said: “Saudi Arabia is part of WHO’s international network and the Kingdom is already sharing information about avian flu.”
Mukhtar also said that Jakarta agreed last week to pass on virus samples to WHO as part of a plan to build a global system for sharing flu viruses and information. Indonesia, which has been the hardest hit by the deadly H5N1 virus, initially didn’t agree to share information, demanding that any pandemic vaccine developed from the virus must be affordable for poor countries.
Bird deaths have been registered in two areas of the Kingdom, as well as in a number of regions in Yemen. Egypt, the country worst affected by avian flu in the Middle East has registered 15 human deaths from the disease since it was first detected in 2006. Egypt is at an advanced stage in its national plan to counter avian flu and is working with the WHO to produce vaccines locally.
The WHO report said that the Saudi Arabia’s transparency in dealing with the disease was vital in “enabling the different UN organizations like WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to provide their services.”
Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE have taken several measures to check the viral outbreak. They have stopped importing Saudi poultry products. Jordan has also stopped importing chickens and poultry products from the Kingdom.
