Rabeah, Minister of Health and President of the Arab Health Ministers Council, is scheduled to elaborate on the Saudi government's efforts to enhance precautionary and preventive measures for combating swine flu. The minister will present the plan during the extraordinary meeting of health ministers of eastern Mediterranean region in Cairo on Wednesday. The minister will be given an extended time to highlight Saudi Arabia's preparations and recommendations about prevention of pilgrims from all diseases and all necessary precautions against swine flu in the regions of Makkah and Madina during Haj and Umrah seasons this year. Dr. Khalid Mirghalani, ministry's spokesman, said Dr. Al-Rabeah will brief the gathering on the findings of the Kingdom following the specialized workshop on swine flu recently held in Jeddah. The Ministry of Health has used the specialized international expertise from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Diseases and Prevention (CDC) and has developed monitoring and response system with 15 important recommendations for preventive and remedial efforts to combat this disease. Mirghalani said the ministry has already begun implementing these recommendations. Instructions have been issued to enlist vaccination against seasonal influenza as well as vaccination against swine flu as soon as these vaccines are available with the international specifications, he added.
