Egypt may ban Hajj pilgrimage as MERS virus spreads: Official

10 years ago | Posted in: Health | 756 Views

Egypt is likely to place a temporary ban on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, a former health minister said, as concerns mount over the spread of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus.

MERS, which causes a respiratory disease, has claimed the lives of more than a hundred people in Saudi Arabia since it emerged in 2012. There have been a number of reported cases in other countries, with the first case detected in Egypt in April of this year.

Saudi Arabia said four people died on Wednesday, driving the death toll in the kingdom to 121 since the disease emerged in 2012. Rates of infection have surged in recent weeks after fresh outbreaks associated with hospitals in Jeddah and Riyadh. The total number of infections identified in the country so far is 449, half of which over the past month alone, according to the Saudi health ministry.

Egypt’s health ministry has already warned that elderly people, children, and those suffering from chronic heart and chest diseases should avoid travelling to Saudi Arabia as the number of deaths continues to rise.

But former health minister Mohammed Awad Tag El-Din, who is also a member of the ministry’s special team working on MERS and other influenza-linked viruses, said Egypt might resort to barring pilgrims from travelling to the kingdom altogether if the “epidemic status of the virus and its development” worsened. His remarks were reported on Wednesday by independent Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.

International concerns have grown as the kingdom is expected to receive a huge influx of pilgrims during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in July, and millions more in the annual Hajj pilgrimage to the city of Mecca in October.

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it did not “recommend the application of any travel or trade restrictions, including for upcoming pilgrimage travel to Saudi Arabia.” The statement on Wednesday came as a team of WHO experts concluded a 5-day mission to the kingdom to help assess the recent upsurge in cases…. see more

source: ahram online

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