The Deputy Minister of Health for Public Health Dr. Ziad Memish, expressed his appreciation for His Majesty’s patronage of the second International ‘Mass Gathering Medicine’ conference organized by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Riyadh during the period 21-23/9/2013, corresponding to 15-17/11/1434H; asserting that the patronage of His Majesty the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz -may Allah protect him- attests to the Government’s generosity, constant concern and support of the health sector, its events and dynamic activities in order to sustain the wellbeing of the citizens of this cherished land.
Highlighting the importance that the MOH gives to the Conference, Dr. Memish mentioned that His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah Bin AbdulAziz Al Rabeeah has directed the formation of a supreme committee to supervise the organizing of the conference headed by the Deputy Minister of Health for Public Health. From this committee, several subcommittees are headed by officials from the MOH. He affirmed that these committees will exert their utmost efforts to reflect a bright image of the Kingdom by way of this conference.
Dr. Memish added that the Secretary-General of the Arab League, the Secretary General of the Cooperation Council (GCC), and the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) will be participating in the Conference. In addition, the GCC Ministers of Health, the (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Regional Director, American, French, Cuban, Canadian, Turkish, Malaysian, Pakistani, Indonesian, and South Korean Ministers of Health, Members of the International Advisory Board, as well as international experts and scientists from all over the world and many international and regional organizations and institutions will also participate.
Dr. Memish went on to add that the Conference aims to review previous scientific and practical experiences of similar circumstances, to promote the efficiency of health procedures taken to tackle mass gathering in Hajj and Umrah seasons. It also aims to present the Kingdom’s unique experience in governing millions of pilgrims who gather in specific geographic locations at the same time to perform Hajj. This makes it an example to learn from. He pointed out that the Conference is considered an opportunity to benefit from international expertise and specialists from global organizations and western countries, as well as exchange experiences and consequently improve healthcare programs in this vital field.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz sponsored the first International Conference titled ‘The Effect of Mass gathering on Public Health’; that was organized in Jeddah on 23-25/10/2010. More than 500 experts and 30 speakers attended from all over the world as well as WHO experts, the GCC and Arab organizations. In the Conference, it was recommended to establish a specialized international reference body in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in charge of mass crowding healthcare and responsible for the classifying and defining of related terms, and activities of crowd health. Moreover, it would also give importance to distributing the knowledge of mass gethering medicine via programs and systems based on facts and data from reliable researches.