His Royal Highness, Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Interior, thanked His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, on the occasion of issuing the Annual Report of Parasitic and Infectious Diseases, 2010, prepared by the Assistant Agency for Preventive Medicine.
In his letter, Prince Naif said, “I would like to thank you, and all the MOH staff, for your colossal and most appreciated efforts. Meanwhile, I wish you all more progress and greater success.”
Dr. Al-Rabeeah, in turn, conveyed his immense gratitude to the Prince for his gracious words, and expressed his appreciation for the prudent government for the generous support for the Health sector. He expounded that the report reveals the most significant health indicators, and the development of the health resources, activities and services provided by the Ministry, as well as the other health sectors. Also, he added, it gives account to the health services which have been remarkably improved over the past few years.
It is worth mentioning that the Annual Report shows that the Kingdom's provinces and regions witnessed a palpable decrease of the diseases targeted by immunization, in the course of 2010, owing to the heightened levels of vaccination coverage. Consequently, the incidence of diphtheria, for instance, went down from 0.04 per 100.000 persons in 2002 to zero per 100.000 persons in 2010. Whooping cough (also known as: pertussis) went down from 0.54 per 100.000 persons in 2003 to zero per 100.000 persons in 2010.
Also, the incidence of andneonatal tetanus decreased from 0.08 per 100.000 persons in 2004 to 0.01 per 100.000 persons in 2010. Similarly, the incidence of hepatitis (B) of 20.43 per 100.000 persons in 2008 to 18.72 per 100.000 persons in 2010. Whereas hepatitis (A) went down from 6.77 per 100.000 persons in 2008 to 2.4 per 100.000 persons in 2010. Likewise, the incidence of chickenpox went down from 242 per 100.000 persons in 2008 69.9 per hundred thousand persons in 2010.
Moreover, there were also a decrease in the cases of most infectious diseases such as meningitis from 0.09 per 100.000 persons in 2006 to 0.01 per 100.000 persons in 2010; hepatitis (c) from 12.53 per 100.000 persons in 2006 to 9.44 per 100.000 persons in 2010; amoebic dysentery from 15.04 per 100.000 persons in 2007 to 11 per 100.000 persons in 2010; shigella from 0.48 per 100.000 persons in 2009 to 0.36 per 100.000 persons in 2010; and maltese fever from 18.93 per 100.000 persons in 2009 to 17.2 per 100.000 persons in 2010.
Besides, there was only a minimal increase in the incidence of Tuberculosis: from 15.6 per 100.000 persons in 2009 to 16.6 per 100.000 persons in 2010 (only 1:100.000 of the persons). This declining rate of increase is due to the improvement in the epidemiological surveillance system and the cooperation between the system and other governmental hospitals.
In addition, the cases of malaria decreased from 0.43 per 100.000 persons last year to 0.2 per 100.000 persons; schistosomiasis cases decreased from 0.3% last year to 0.2%; visceral leishmaniasis cases decreased from 0.07 per 100.000 persons last year to 0.03 per 100.000 persons; while skin leishmaniasis cases reached 16.27 per 100.000 persons compared to 10.05 per 100.000 persons last year.