JEDDAH: The Jeddah Hilton hosts from Saturday the First Global Forum on Mass Gathering Medicine 2010 with the theme of the three-day event being “Implications and Opportunities for Global Health Security”. 12 ministers from GCC countries, Europe and the Middle East are in attendance, along with the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) and some 500 researchers. “This is a great opportunity to learn from the experience of international specialists from global organizations and will help improve health programs in what is a vital field,” said Dr. Tawfiq Khoja, of the Council of GCC Ministers of Health. “We hope to come out with a work plan and a global vision towards the concept of sustainable mass gatherings.” Khoja said the conference would demonstrate the Kingdom's unique experience of the Haj season, when over two million people coincide in time and place. Last year's Haj was conducted during a WHO-declared pandemic. According to head organizer Dr. Ziyad Meimish, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Preventive Medicine, the conference is addressing a range of major subjects. “We are looking at the impact of international health laws and regulations on religious and political gatherings, the effects of isolation, health quarantine and public hygiene to prevent the spread of epidemics, the importance of basic healthcare and preventive planning strategies,” Meimish said. “We'll be learning lessons from the best models in handling human mass gatherings such as the Haj, the World Cup and the Olympic Games, the swearing-in ceremony of President Obama and other events of that scale.”
