Rabeah, Minister of Health, has inaugurated the first workshop on the mobile-based Haj infectious disease surveillance system. The workshop, organized by the Ministry of Health in cooperation with Jeddah Health Affairs Management, aims at acquainting doctors and specialists with the use of new mobile techniques to monitor epidemic diseases. “This new technique is about using mobiles and laptops to store details and data about epidemic diseases and discovering their geographical location by using the GBS system wherein information will appear on digital maps,” said Al-Rabeah. The three-day workshop began on Saturday. “This new technique was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and experts in infectious diseases from the United Sates. They came to Jeddah to discuss with us the possibility of using this improved technique,” he added. Dr. Sami Badawood, Director of Jeddah Health Affairs Management, said Saudi Arabia will be the first country in the Middle East to use this system which has proved to be successful in the United States. “Applying this new technique will help us identify viruses and control their spread. We are starting from Jeddah and then will move to other areas and provinces,” he said.
