Advanced surveillance system to monitor swine flu planned
RIYADH. August 15. KAZINFORM Preparations are underway to operate an advanced surveillance system to monitor swine flu during this year's Ramadan Umrah and the following Haj, Kazinform refers to Arab News.
"It is a mobile surveillance system developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, known as the CDC, based in Atlanta by request from the (Saudi) Ministry of Health," said ministry spokesman Dr. Khalid Al-Mirghalani. "The purpose of the system is to help in monitoring the epidemiology of swine flu and other infectious disease under surveillance by the ministry among the pilgrims at the ports of entry and the holy places," he said.
He pointed out that there is already a team of experts from the CDC working with Saudi teams on this system that was announced recently by the ministry to be installed soon.
Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Tadesse Wuhib, a member of CDC team and the director of global health information program at the National Center for Public Health Information, said that the mission of the team stemmed from the recommendation of both a recent Jeddah workshop and the ministerial meeting in Cairo.
Wuhib added that the system developed by CDC is not new; it has been in use for years by CDC as a tool to monitor the potential of breakouts of infectious diseases in many situations, such as the Olympics and during natural disasters.
A training session is scheduled for Saturday on the use of the system. Several Saudi surveillance teams will participate.
"It is a session aimed at preparing trainers who will take the mission of training more teams," said Baghal. "Trainees will learn how to use the system and operate the advanced mobile devices used with it, to exchange data with the system. Also, they will learn the methodologies needed by the system to gather information in field surveillance tours."
Dr. Muhammed Al-Mazrou, the director general of the Ministry of Health's disease surveillance program, told Arab News these teams could number as much as 30 and would begin field trials during Ramadan, which will begin on Aug. 22 or 23, depending on the appearance of the new moon. Each team will be composed of three people, including a physician and an epidemiology surveillance specialist, Kazinform cotes Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.