Under the sponsorship of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the events of the International Conference "Mass Gathering Impact on Public Health", held by the Ministry of Health in Jeddah Hilton hotel, will start today at 4 pm, Saturday 23rd of October 2010.
In this occasion, the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz AL Rabeeah thanked the King for sponsoring this conference, which assures his significant care about pilgrims' health and safety and making their journey easy for them.
Dr. AL Rabeeah assured that the world known experts and consultants specialized in Infectious diseases, public health and viruses in addition to people related to mass gatherings from all over the world to recognize the Kingdoms unique experience in managing mass human gatherings in Hajj seasons.
He added that the conference aims to take a look at previous scientific and practical experiences in which it will to increase the efficiency of health measurements needed to deal with the increasing mass gatherings during Hajj and Umra seasons. Also, to draw attention to the uniqueness of the Kingdom's experience in these seasons; where it handles more than 2 million pilgrims in such a limited time and space.
Moreover, more than 500 participants will participate in the conference, where 30 of them are international experts who represent Ministry of Health of America and German, World Health Organization, United States Centres for Disease Control, Arab University ,GCC Health Ministers, World Association of Travel, the Islamic Bank and FIFA in addition to distinguished scientific participations from local governmental sectors like Hajj Higher Committee, Hajj Central Committee, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Hajj, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Information and Culture, Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Transportation, Saudi Red Crescent Authority, the General Authority of Civil Aviation, King Fahd Centre for Hajj Researches and Saudi universities.
The Minister notified that a roundtable discussion will be held on the night of the opening day. The discussion will be attended by His Royal Highness Prince Faisal bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, President of Saudi Red Crescent Authority, Ministers of Hajj, Culture and Information and Labor, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in addition to the Ministers of Health in Lebanon, Yemen and Oman.
The Conference will discuss different subjects specially the importance of mass gathering medicine, the role of media and health awareness in such gatherings and the medical and therapeutical provided aspects. Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs will also share its experiences in the fields of civil engineering and environmental health.
He added that he hope that the conference will come up with recommendations, and suggestions that improves the health field specially mass gathering medicine.
Dr. AL Rabeeah Clarified that Saudi Commission for Health Specialties has approved the events of the conference in which 27 hours of the conference duration will be for training in the field of continuous learning. The conference will last for 3 days from 8 am till 5 pm in addition to the roundtable events which will last till 8 pm next Saturday.
Moreover, the American Whitehouse will participate in this conference where the inauguration American experience in dealing with mass gatherings will be discussed. The last inauguration, which was for the President Barack Obama, included 2 million people in which 1.4 million of them were at Washington's shopping mall, located between Washington Monument and the U.S. capital building.
In addition, FIFA will share its last world cup experience in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was attended by about 3.18 million people, which was nearly less than the U.S record in 1994 that have reached 3.59 million people, in addition to the participation of 18449 volunteers. The Canadian experience in organizing the Winter Olympics, which was held on Vancouver 2010, will also be mentioned.
The number of participated countries reached 82 countries, that was represented by 2762 athletics and included half a million visitor in addition to the participation of 10,000 reporter covering the event, which is considered a world record. The British Health Protection Agency will also mention its experience in preparing for hosting the Olympics on 2010. It will present a scientific research about the general ethics related to the health planning for the Olympics and the Special Olympics. This includes public health, command and communication center and monitoring and evaluation the quality of provided health services.