Health campaign to target Haj camps
RIYADH: As part of its health awareness campaign during Haj, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has prepared a mobile health awareness team that will provide health tips and guidelines to pilgrims in their own camps.
The holy sites covered under the program are Makkah, Madinah, Minah, Muzdalaifah, Arafat, and the Jamaarat area.
An MoH official said that his ministry has harnessed all its human capabilities and health facilities to provide maximum health care to pilgrims, and maintain their health and safety. The MoH continues activities of its health awareness campaign in collaboration with Sanofi.
The MoH has completed its arrangements to hold educational lectures for the medical missions accompanying the Haj campaigns, with a view to promoting health awareness among pilgrims, and commitment to apply health requirements set by the MoH.
The health awareness campaign, launched under the theme “Together for a Healthy Pilgrimage,” aims at promoting health awareness among pilgrims on the main health requirements during the Haj season. In addition, the campaign focuses on a number of topics, including yellow fever, meningococcal meningitis, poliomyelitis and vaccination against seasonal flu, as well as mod- ifying some health misconceptions among pilgrims during the performance of Haj rites.
During the campaign, the Ministry of Health will send 2 million SMSs to pilgrims’ mobile phones to tell them of the preventive measures to be adopted during their stay in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.
The official said that the ministry has also launched a multimedia awareness campaign harnessing all media channels to reach the millions of pilgrims coming from across the world.
The ministry has also printed more than 500,000 brochures in 10 languages for distribution among Hajis. He said the brochures spell out the guidelines to prevent the spread of infection among the pilgrims and advise them of the precautionary measures against health problems. The booklets will be distributed among the pilgrims speaking different languages.
The ministry will also distribute leaflets containing picture messages of what the pilgrims should and should not do during their stay in the holy cities. “These pictures can be understood by all pilgrims,” he added.