An agriculture official here has denied that there has been an outbreak of the potentially deadly Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in the region over the past few days. Mubarak Bin Muhammad Al-Mutlaqah, Director of the Agriculture Ministry's branch in Asir, stressed that his administration has been following scientific methods to fight viral and epidemic diseases in the region. Al-Mutlaqah said the ban on the entry of livestock to the Jizan region is still continuing as a precautionary measure. He said the ban will only be lifted if the region is cleared of carriers of the disease. He said a number of veterinary teams specializing in fighting epidemics have been assigned to prevent the spread of the contagious diseases. He said that his administration has approved an urgent program to fight these diseases, including carrying out periodic immunization programs on livestock. He said the teams have taken samples from livestock in the region to determine their level of immunity. Also, other preventative measures have been carried out including aerial and land spraying to eradicate disease carriers in the region. Sa'eed Bin Abdullah Al-Niqair, spokesman of the Directorate General of Health Affairs in Asir, said that not a single case of RVF has been reported so far among humans. He assured residents in the region that the directorate has already taken all the precautionary measures devised by the Ministry of Health to prevent the spread of the disease. The measures in Asir come in the wake of four cases of RVF reported in Najran – affecting one Saudi and three expatriates. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), RVF is a virus that can be spread to humans by animals, including livestock, mosquitoes and blood-feeding flies. The vast majority of human infections occur through direct or indirect contact with the organs or blood of infected animals. Infection can cause severe disease in both animals and humans, leading to high rates of death. It can also result in significant economic losses due to death and abortion among RVF-infected livestock, according to the WHO.
