Ministry of Health announced in a statement issued Sat. 14 Aug 2010 the decline of H1N1 in the Kingdom. This disease is no longer considered a global epidemic disease; it is in the post stage of epidemic spreading. The statement points out that laboratory-confirmed cases registered (875) cases in 2010 compared to 2009, where it registered 17,000 cases as 124 of them died. In the past period, few cases were discovered in some different areas of the Kingdom and were considered simple cases with no complications or death and the disease has declined as it was mentioned recently in World Health Organization report.
The Ministry assures that doctors in all governmental and private health facilities must deal with H1N1 as a normal seasonal disease. The statement pointed out that the Preventative Medicine Associate Agency, which carries out epidemic surveillance for different infectious and serious diseases, is still observing the status of this disease and other designated diseases as usual.
World Health Organization General Manger, Dr. Margaret Shan, has announce this Tuesday that H1N1 is no longer considered a dangerous global disease and the virus spreading cycle is over, where it is considered in the post stage of epidemic spreading and will be carried out as seasonal flue. This means that emergencies procedures which were taken to combat this disease are no longer needed.
The Saudi Government had given great attention to this disease, where King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz directed to take all the needed precautionary measures performed by the Ministry of Health, such as monitoring global variables for H1N1, applying World Health Organization instructions and providing curative and preventative medication. Moreover, the Ministry was committed to combat the disease in all Kingdom's areas, where Scientific National Committee for Contagious Diseases were formed and held several international conferences such as the International Conference which took place in Jeddah and included more than fifty experts from leading consultants in the field of viruses, flue and infectious diseases. These great achievements contributed to the success of the Hajj season for last year, where no epidemic and contagious diseases were registered, including H1N1.