The Ministry of Health organizes today Saturday March 3, 2007 a celebration on the occasion of the award offered to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for eradicating poliomyelitis. The celebration shall be held at 8:00 pm at Makarim Hall, Mariot Hotel, under the auspices of Sanovy Pasteur company, says Khalid Marghalani, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Health.
Expressing his satisfaction for the achievement, which will be added to the other successes in the different fields, Dr, Marghalani called for more efforts and hard work for achieving more successes. He said a number of projects shall be carried out during the coming period for providing high quality services to the citizens in the different parts of the Kingdom.
He described the WHO certificate declaring the Kingdom is free from poliomyelitis as being a decorative star devoted to the Ministry of Health and its employees. He attributed the success to the vaccination programs that covered all parts of the Kingdom during the last five years.
Dr. Marghalani appreciated the close attention paid to vaccination programs by Dr. Hamad Al-Mane, denoting that this achievement would not have been a reality without his close follow up and encouragement.
It has to be mentioned here that poliomyelitis is characterized by its great spreading ability. Its prevalence rate in families involving an infected member may reach 100%, especially among unvaccinated children. A minority of infected children may develop paralysis, whereas the majority remain unaffected. The ability of an infected child to transmit the disease to others is greater during the early stage of infection. The virus appears first in the throat excretions then in the feces after 72 hours of infection. If it is left without treatment it leaves devastating deformities.