Elderly advised to skip Haj this year

Elderly advised to skip Haj this year

The elderly, frail, very young, and pregnant women have advised not to perform...

July 1, 2009 3:52 by Dana El Baltaji

The elderly, frail, very young, and pregnant women have advised not to perform Haj and Umrah this year by officials who attended workshop on precautionary health measures held in Saudi Arabia, Arab News reports. The officials made the call amid fears over the spread of swine in the kingdom.

“What the health authorities in the Kingdom are doing to prevent the spread of the disease by far surpasses what is being done anywhere else in the world,” said Saudi Health Minister Abdullah Al Rabeeah, adding that Saudi Arabia is the only country that is enforcing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) system of quarantine.

Tags: Haj, Health Minister, Saudi Arabia, swine flu, Umrah

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1 Comment

Charl on July 2, 2009 7:45 am

The World Health Organization does not recommend restricting travel in response to the influenza, declaring that “limiting travel and imposing travel restrictions would have very little effect on stopping the virus from spreading, but would be highly disruptive to the global community”.
This of course applies not only to travelling to Saudi Arabia.