RIYADH: As part of a drive to prevent the spread of swine flu, the Ministry of Health is to begin vaccinating local Haj pilgrims and workers in Makkah and Madinah.
“We have a sizable quantity of doses of the swine flu vaccine and we want to commence the immunization program without delay since the vaccine will be effective only 10 days after vaccination,” said Dr. Ziad Al-Memish, assistant deputy minister of health for preventive medicine.
He added that the vaccination is not mandatory for local pilgrims. However, he insisted that local pilgrims take the jab 10 days before Haj.
The flu has affected 7,000 people in the Kingdom and caused 62 deaths. On Monday, the ministry assigned 74 health centers in 18 governorates to receive suspected swine flu patients until midnight every day.
He added that with Haj only weeks away, mobile surveillance machines have been distributed among health officials who work in the holy cities and that a Central Command Office is to be established to monitor the spread of the virus through the network.
“We are making every effort to make the Haj a flu-free season,” Al-Memish said, adding that public cooperation was necessary to make this a success.
Vaccinations would be available to public and private sector workers as well as to people who live in Makkah and Madinah.
Around two million pilgrims perform Haj each year. In order to avoid crowding during the pilgrimage, the Kingdom allows local pilgrims to perform Haj only once every five years. The Passport Department is to start receiving applications for Haj permits from local pilgrims starting Saturday.
In a separate development, the Saudi Food and Drugs Authority (SFDA) held a meeting on Monday with manufacturers of swine flu vaccines to assess the suitability and quality of the jabs. The SFDA added that it would — in line with the standards of the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and the EU’s European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) — continue to study the vaccines, ensuring they are safe.
The SFDA also noted that it is watching H1N1 vaccine-related developments in other countries and that tests have shown that the vaccine to be used in the Kingdom is of the same quality as those that are being used in 17 countries, including the UK, France, Holland, Denmark and Sweden.
It said the vaccine contains no side effects worse than the regular seasonal flu vaccine, which has been used for the last 20 years.
The SFDA has also set standards for manufacturers wanting to market swine flu vaccines in the Kingdom. Manufacturers are advised to ensure their vaccines are not below the quality of the Pandemrix vaccine manufactured by the Belgium-based GlaxoSmithKline and that they are sold in vials.
The standards authority also advised citizens to ignore negative e-mails and text messages about the vaccines.
Three vaccines — Pandemrix, Celvapan, and Focetria — have been approved by the EU to fight the swine flu epidemic in Europe. Germany, meanwhile, is keen on vaccinating as many people as soon as possible to avoid a possible H1N1 outbreak at the start of winter.
— With input from Muhammad Rasooldeen and Sarah Abdullah
