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Editor, Senior Moderator
JEDDAH: Taking vaccination against swine flu and meningitis is still a condition to receive Umrah visas, a number of pilgrims arriving at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah told Arab News.
The swine-flu vaccine requirement is being maintained despite the global retreat of the virus. With the waning threat of a major epidemic, vaccine stocks are no longer being built up. This week the United States began destroying a quarter of its vaccine stock (40 million doses) that has expired.
However, the Saudi Health Ministry has said it is continuing to take all precautions against the disease. Indeed, the virus is still out there. Mumbai registered about 100 cases of the A/H1N1 in June.
?We have installed thermal cameras at entry points including airports to detect those passengers and pilgrims having high temperatures. Those tested positive to H1N1 would be quarantined,? the ministry said in a statement. ?We are also following up World Health Organization reports about swine flu in order to take appropriate action.?
Officials at King Abdulaziz International Airport are far more subdued about the swine flu than they were this time last year. Fear of the potentially fatal flu reached a point where the Health Ministry was urging the public to avoid crowded places.
Many people who talked to Arab News at the airport said they were not subjected to any form of medical examination and they have not seen any unfamiliar procedures like last year.
"I arrived in the Kingdom with the beginning of my summer vacation like every time each year. I did not think about swine flu until you asked me about it," said Hashim Abdul Rahman, who is studying abroad.
A number of pilgrims who arrived in the Kingdom for Umrah from an Arab country told Arab News that the regulations in their country made it imperative on them to take vaccination against a number of epidemic diseases, including swine flu.
The scare of the disease during the previous Umrah season peaked between May and October last year. Two hundred and forty four cases of the flu were identified in the Kingdom in Shaaban, the month prior to Ramadan. During Ramadan another 247 cases were detected. This number declined to 137 in Shawwal, the month after Ramadan.
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Turkistani and Dr. Bakr Kalo from the Ministry of Health said more than 200,000 fliers and many posters in various languages were distributed during last year's swine-flu campaign to confront what they called a "wave of terror" caused by media exaggerations about the swine flu threat.
Now, despite the requirement that all pilgrims must be vaccinated against swine flu, the alarm bells are no longer ringing. Jeddah supermarkets are no longer offering complimentary anti-viral hand lotion and people are no longer stocking up on Tamiflu.
A number of academics and economists, who spoke to Arab News, said billions of riyals were spent on swine flu last year in response to consistent warnings by the World Health Organization.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article77522.ece
The swine-flu vaccine requirement is being maintained despite the global retreat of the virus. With the waning threat of a major epidemic, vaccine stocks are no longer being built up. This week the United States began destroying a quarter of its vaccine stock (40 million doses) that has expired.
However, the Saudi Health Ministry has said it is continuing to take all precautions against the disease. Indeed, the virus is still out there. Mumbai registered about 100 cases of the A/H1N1 in June.
?We have installed thermal cameras at entry points including airports to detect those passengers and pilgrims having high temperatures. Those tested positive to H1N1 would be quarantined,? the ministry said in a statement. ?We are also following up World Health Organization reports about swine flu in order to take appropriate action.?
Officials at King Abdulaziz International Airport are far more subdued about the swine flu than they were this time last year. Fear of the potentially fatal flu reached a point where the Health Ministry was urging the public to avoid crowded places.
Many people who talked to Arab News at the airport said they were not subjected to any form of medical examination and they have not seen any unfamiliar procedures like last year.
"I arrived in the Kingdom with the beginning of my summer vacation like every time each year. I did not think about swine flu until you asked me about it," said Hashim Abdul Rahman, who is studying abroad.
A number of pilgrims who arrived in the Kingdom for Umrah from an Arab country told Arab News that the regulations in their country made it imperative on them to take vaccination against a number of epidemic diseases, including swine flu.
The scare of the disease during the previous Umrah season peaked between May and October last year. Two hundred and forty four cases of the flu were identified in the Kingdom in Shaaban, the month prior to Ramadan. During Ramadan another 247 cases were detected. This number declined to 137 in Shawwal, the month after Ramadan.
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Turkistani and Dr. Bakr Kalo from the Ministry of Health said more than 200,000 fliers and many posters in various languages were distributed during last year's swine-flu campaign to confront what they called a "wave of terror" caused by media exaggerations about the swine flu threat.
Now, despite the requirement that all pilgrims must be vaccinated against swine flu, the alarm bells are no longer ringing. Jeddah supermarkets are no longer offering complimentary anti-viral hand lotion and people are no longer stocking up on Tamiflu.
A number of academics and economists, who spoke to Arab News, said billions of riyals were spent on swine flu last year in response to consistent warnings by the World Health Organization.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article77522.ece