MOH starts massive health awareness drive for Haj

The Ministry of Health has launched a massive health awareness campaign for this year’s Haj under the slogan “Together for a Healthy Pilgrimage”.

According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Wednesday, the campaign is meant to enlighten the guests of God about the most important health requirements the pilgrims should meet to stay healthy during the Haj season.

The ministry asked the pilgrims to make sure that they are vaccinated against a number of infectious diseases before arriving in the Kingdom. Among others, these diseases include the yellow fever, meningitis, seasonal flu and small pox.

The ministry has printed more than 500,000 stickers and a large quantity of pamphlets in 10 languages containing information about the infectious diseases, their symptoms and side effects, and how to avoid them.

The pamphlets explain easy ways and means through which a pilgrim can detect these diseases and the methods he or she should follow in case of an infection.

The ministry has set up medical centers at all air, sea and land inlets to make sure that the pilgrims are vaccinated. Anyone who failed to get vaccinated back home can do it on arrival at the entry points.

The ministry has also produced four documentaries with guidelines about sunstroke, heat exhaustion, food poisoning and others.

The ministry has prepared four vehicles with large screens and placed about 80 plasma screens at health centers in the holy sites to spread awareness among pilgrims.

It will also use social media to spread health awareness and will send more than 2 million text messages on mobile phones.

About 380,000 pilgrims have so far arrived in the Kingdom to perform the fifth pillar of Islam.

Transport Minister Solaiman Al-Hamdan, who is the acting president of the General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA), said about 190,00 pilgrims arrived via King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and a similar number via Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz International Airport in Madinah.

The minister on Tuesday made an inspection tour of the Haj Terminal in Jeddah to review the preparations being made to receive the guests of God.
He said the terminal can easily accommodate about a million pilgrims and it will be enlarged whenever necessary.

The terminal contains 14 lounges to serve the pilgrims who can now clear passport procedures in about half an hour of arrival and embark the buses that will take them either to Makkah or Madinah.