Saudi preparations for Haj rituals amid fear of disease

The Saudi minister of health hamad Bi Abdullah al-Mane said that his ministry has completed preparations for the Haj season which is due to start in the second week of January, through equipping hospitals, health centers and ambulances in order to cover all border openings and to provide them with qualified medical personnel.

Amid fears of the spread of the "Bird Flue" disease, Saudi Arabia announced that more than half a million person arrived in the country to perform al-Haj rituals.

Mane said in a press conference in Riyadh on Sunday that the specialized health departments examined some 622,000 pilgrims arrived so far to the kingdom, and made sure that they are free from any infectious disease, noting that any pilgrim thta is infected will be forced to return back to his country.

The Saudi minister did not specifically speak about the "Bird Flue" disease, but other officials said that the Kingdom spent 25 million Saudi Riyals (estimated at $ 6.7 million) as a preventive measure from this disease before the beginning of the Haj season, especially amid those who are working in the fields of poultry.

Health experts warned that a gathering of two million Muslim this year in Mecca paves the conditions appropriate for the emergence of a mutation of ( H5N1) of Bird Flue which infects people, noting in this regard that hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are arriving from Asian countries, the most vulnerable to this disease.