King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has directed all government and private hospitals in the Kingdom to treat and provide medical care to patients (Saudis, expatriates and Umrah pilgrims) suffering from swine flu at the expense of the State. Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Rabeah, Minister of Health, said this generous gesture of the King stems from his concern for citizens, expatriates and Umrah pilgrims. Al-Rabeah said these directives are in continuation of the advanced health care the State provides to citizens and expatriates. The directive came as the Ministry of Health Wednesday announced two more swine flu deaths in the Kingdom, taking the toll by the disease to 11. As of Aug. 6, some 177,457 cases of the virus, including 1,462 deaths, have been officially reported worldwide, but the true number of infections is certainly much higher, said the World Health Organization. The H1N1 flu outbreak, declared a pandemic on June 11, has spread around the world since emerging in April and could eventually affect 2 billion people, according to WHO estimates. “In temperate areas of the southern hemisphere -- Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand -- pandemic virus transmission appears to have peaked and is now on the decline in areas previously affected,” WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters. Countries are now only obliged to report their first confirmed cases to WHO, which says there is no longer any point to counting each infection as the virus is unstoppable.
