Health ministers of the six member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) decided on Saturday to put the health facilities of the region on high alert against the A/H1N1 flu virus, according to Qatari News Agency.
During their one-day emergency meeting, the ministers agreed to activate their national surveillance and early warning systems after the outbreak of the epidemic in several countries of the world, Xinhua reported.
They followed suit of EU countries, Canada and Argentina in advising their nationals to avoid travel to the countries hit by the epidemic, according to the final communique of the meeting.
The meeting urged continuation to follow up developments of the fatal disease worldwide, assessment of the domestic situations and revealing all related information in a transparent way.
It called for exchanging information and expertise among the health departments of GCC countries and appointing a liaison officer in each country in arranging contacts among the regional health departments and the concerned international organizations notably the World Health Organization (WHO).
The ministers agreed to announce any suspected case of infection as soon as possible through the liaison officer and the Executive Office of the GCC Health Ministers' Council, the communique said.
They agreed to put the human and technical resources of each country at the disposal of the other GCC countries as part of the collective measures to guard against the emergence of the fatal disease.
They urged to provide the central labs of GCC members with necessary equipment to prevent and diagnose the A/H1N1 virus and treat any possible cases in the future in cooperation with WHO.
The meeting recommended launching an educational campaign about the disease, its risks and the precautions against it and launching a website for this purpose, the communique revealed.
It called for following up the international efforts aiming to develop a proper vaccine against the virus in keeping in contact with possible producers of such vaccine in a prelude to providing it to the GCC members.
It asked their national medical firms to step up efforts to develop such a vaccine in line with the accredited international standards and in cooperation with the GCC Secretariat, the communique added.
The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
...