Yesterday, his Excellency Engineer Adel bin Mohammed Faqih, the acting Minister of Health met a delegation related to the United States-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) affiliated to the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States of America.
The meeting took place under the umbrella of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), which seeks to face epidemics and fight its spread worldwide. This comes as part of the Ministry of Health's efforts in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding fighting the Middle East respiratory syndrome CoronaVirus (MERS CoV) and curbing its spread. Similarly, the MOH is to work alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with the aim of exchanging information and expertise as part of the global efforts made for containing the spread of the virus.
In remarks made in relation to the meeting, his Excellency Engineer Adel bin Mohammed Alfaqih said "the MOH works alongside a number of the world bodies and organizations to coordinate the efforts made in terms of containing and facing the virus spread risk in the Kingdom and worldwide. Further, the MOH exchange the information, expertise, the results of researches and experiments, and best practices gained by the Saudi medical cadres at a regular basis with these bodies."
For his part, the spokesman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pointed out that the team in collaboration with the concerned in the Kingdom will work on conducting more scientific researches.
Meanwhile, the MOH affirmed that the safety and health of the masses in the Kingdom tops its priorities, and it will not hesitate to take crucial measures in its quest of achieving this goal. To that effect, the MOH assigned three hospitals in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam as centers for receiving the CoronaVirus-related cases, and for making sure of providing the best healthcare services for them. It also set up the independent "Medical Advisory Council" with the aim of providing the medical tips and consultations, as well as launching awareness campaign to provide a window for the masses with the ways of preventing from this virus.
It is worth mentioning that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was founded in 1946, and its headquarters is based in Atlanta, Georgia. It is concerned with protecting the public safety through controlling and preventing the diseases.