RIYADH: Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah yesterday asked his ministry to hold a special workshop for health officials to better combat the spread of swine flu in the Kingdom as three more cases were reported. The number of people affected with the H1N1 virus in the Gulf, meanwhile, also rose to 33 with Qatar reporting its first cases.
The workshop in the Kingdom next week will have foreign experts among its participants. “This is going to be an extraordinary meeting at which experts from the World Health Organization, the Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and the Eastern Mediterranean Office in Alexandria will give their views and tell local officials how to react to the flu virus,” Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Khalid Al-Mirghalani said.
After the workshop, the experts would be taken to the Haj Terminal in Jeddah and other places where large numbers of people gather in order for them to give suggestions about dealing with the virus. Al-Mirghalani said that the health minister was open to any constructive suggestion to combat the disease. The workshop is tentatively fixed for June 26.
The Health Ministry yesterday announced the discovery of three more cases of swine flu — two in Madinah and one in Riyadh — bringing the total number of cases in the Kingdom to 17.
The two people identified with the virus yesterday at the King Fahd Hospital in Madinah were a Saudi student coming from Australia and a woman patient. The third patient is a Malaysian nurse. An official said that the Saudi student came by Emirates airlines Flight 817 from Dubai to King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh on Friday and subsequently traveled the following day by Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 1465 to Madinah.
The official said that passengers who had traveled on those flights should be careful and should report any symptoms to the ministry. The telephone numbers to be contacted in Riyadh are: 01-4875511 (Extensions 333, 391 and 392); in Dammam: 03-8273526 (Ext. 102) or 03-8284752 (Ext. 102); in Jeddah: 02-6640288 or 02-6640256.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, three people arriving in Doha on international flights were diagnosed with the virus and Kuwait reported that one of its citizens tested positive — the first among the emirate’s resident population.
Qatar’s Health Minister Abdullah Al-Qahtani said a two-year-old New Zealand child tested positive for the flu on arrival in Doha on Saturday from Austria after a stopover in Dubai.
And a two-year-old American-Bangladeshi boy transiting Doha on Sunday from New York to Bangladesh who showed flu symptoms was taken to the airport clinic where he was diagnosed with the infection, Al-Qahtani was quoted by the official QNA news agency as saying.
An Iraqi arriving from the United States was also found to be infected with the virus, the official told a news conference.
Meanwhile, Jordanian health authorities yesterday announced the discovery of the first cases of swine flu in the country — two girls, who arrived from outside the country.
Health Minister Nayef Al-Fayez did not name the country, but said the patients have been quarantined and receiving treatment. “They are both in good health,” Al-Fayez added.
— With input from Abdul Jalil Mustafa in Amman
