His Excellency Engineer Adel bin Mohammed Faqih, the acting Minister of Health in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, delivers a speech before two meetings for the senior officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) within the framework of the sixty-seventh meeting of the World Health Assembly. It is being held in Geneva, and lasts until Wednesday, May 21, 2014.
Still, the World Health Assembly is the highest body responsible formaking decisions in the WHO. Present at the meeting are delegations from the member states of the WHO. The meeting discusses a special agenda prepared by the WHO Executive Council.
Today morning, the Minister of Health has delivered a speech before a meeting for the health ministers of the Middle East states. During the speech, he spoke about the efforts and initiatives made in the Kingdom in terms of fighting the Middle East respiratory syndrome CoronaVirus (MERS CoV) since taking office.
He said "containing The MERS CoV tops the priorities of the Ministry of Health (MOH), and this is what we are working on alongside our partners in the international organizations and bodies, as well as research and medical experts within and outside the Kingdom. Similarly, we are coordinating with the WHO on a daily basis; with the aim of ensuring exchanging the latest results and information and best practiceswiththe parties interested in these international efforts."
"The Kingdom's main priority is to prevent the infection. To that end, the MOH has established an operation center to be the main support for our efforts, as well as forming a medical team for swift response. The MOH also has set updated protocols and guidelines to prevent and fight the infection, and has obliged all the healthcare facilities in the Kingdom to strictly apply them," he went on adding.
Likewise, the speech has shed light on the cooperation in place between the MOH and the health and scientific bodies worldwide. It also offered a glimpse of the wide-scale Initiatives Program, took effect in the Kingdom's hospitals in the last month.Also, it provided a window to the cooperation with the other states'governments to protect their citizens.
Further, The Minister of Healthdisplayed the Kingdom's expertise on the annual organization of the Hajj rituals as part of a ministerial session meant for exchanging expertise and issuing recommendations in relation to the public health during the mass gatherings organizing.
In a similar fashion, during the meeting, the health ministers of the United Kingdom, Poland, and Brazil will also speak about the health security expertise in their countries.They willalso shine light on the preparations of the 2012 Summer Olympics, Euro 2012, and World Cup 2014 organization. In a similar fashion, the meeting will feature speeches delivered byDr. Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. AlaAlwan, the Director of the WHO East Mediterranean Office, and Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO Health and Environment Security Affairs as well.