MOH News

MOH: The Coronavirus Season Started Two Months Earlier
19 February 2015
The Assistant Deputy Minister for Preventive Health, Dr. Abdullah Asiri, said that the highest rates of infections with Coronavirus amid those with chronic diseases were recorded among people over fifty years of age and males more than females.
 
He said that this year's infection season began two months earlier, adding that the virus was expected to be active in March and April. Moreover, Dr. Asiri noted that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has taken all preparations needed to combat the virus through intensifying awareness campaigns among the community members, preparing health facilities to deal with the suspected cases, briefing health workers on ways of assorting patients at emergency units and clinics and using personal protection equipment.
 
In the same vein, Dr. Asiri noted that the commitment of health workers to infection control procedures is so important to prevent the spread of the disease in the health facilities. "Therefore," said Dr. Asiri, "the MOH has carried out a training campaign including more than 40,000 health practitioners, and formed field monitoring teams in regions to visit governmental and private hospitals and ensure application of health requirements.
 
This came during the visit of Dr. Asiri to the MOH's National Center for Media and Health Awareness in the context of the activities of the awareness campaign on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
 
He stressed that the most important reason behind unavailability of a vaccine against the Coronavirus so far is the genetic mutation of the virus and the difficulty of finding a strong immunological catalyst in its composition, in addition to the lack of concentration by big companies and centers on conducting the required researches to produce the vaccine due to the absence of tempting profits as well as the lack of suitable lab animals.
 
On the role of camels in transmitting the disease, Dr. Asiri underscored that it is scientifically approved, and the responsibility here is shared between the Ministries of Health and Agriculture to spread awareness among the community members in general and the camels' owners, herders and those dealing with them in particular and to reach them by all possible means, specially that some of the targeted groups don't use modern means of communication such as social networking websites and emails, therefore greater efforts are needed to deliver information to those groups.
 
He pointed out that the nonstop inquiries from the public about the symptoms of the disease are considered an indication that they are really concerned, blaming the lack of obvious symptoms to differentiate between the common respiratory diseases and Coronavirus.
 
 
 
 



Last Update : 22 February 2015 10:23 AM
Reading times :