The Ministry of Health has succeeded in getting around 1.2 million people take the seasonal influenza vaccine in the past few months.

This was announced by Dr. Aisha Al-Shammari, director of the National Program for Immunization, at an event to mark the end of first phase of the campaign and laud this remarkable success here Sunday.

“Of them, around 600,000 people had taken the vaccine at the government health care facilities, while the remaining had taken it at the private sector facilities in accordance with the seasonal influenza vaccination campaign launched for this year,” she said.

“The studies of the World Health Organization have indicated that taking the vaccine proved to be very useful as a preventive measure,” she said, adding that the ministry has now started preparations for the next phase of the five-year campaign to fight influenza.

Deputy Health Minister for Public Health Dr. Abdulaziz bin Saeed commended both the government private sectors for their dedication in reaching this huge number.

He also commended Dr. Al-Shammari’s efforts in running the campaign, and all her colleagues and the parties who helped in its success.

“She had made an ambitious plan for the governmental health sector to vaccinate 500,000 citizens, but the figure reached 600,000, almost 20 percent more, despite that the campaign has been conducted while the ministry was busy with fighting Middle East Respiratory Syndromes virus.”

“Also, we can know how ambitious the plan was when we compare the set target for this year plan with the last year target of only 100,000,” he added.

WHO Representative Dr. Hasan Al-Bushra lauded the Kingdom’s intense effort in fighting the communicable disease in recent years along with other diseases, but he stressed the importance of awareness of influenza not only in the Kingdom but also in the other Arab countries; they all should look at influenza lightly as a normal disease and not a fatal one.

Dr. Bin Saeed concluded the event by honoring the top achiever in vaccination in each sector. In the governmental sector, Jeddah ranked first while both Hail and the Eastern Region ranked second. In the private sector, Dr. Sulaiman Fakeih Hospital in Jeddah ranked first, Saad Specialized Hospital in Alkhobar second, and Dr. Sulaiman Al-Habib Hospitals ranked third.