The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (King of Saudi Arabia) King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz invited a team of internationally renowned experts from around the world to discuss the seriousness of swine flu on the pilgrims and Umrah (minor pilgrimage) performers. A statement of the Regional Office of the World Health Organization in Cairo said that the King asked the experts to cooperate with the national officials to identify the best possible recommendations to ensure the safety and health of residents and pilgrims in Saudi Arabia , as well as to ensure global health, with the participation of experts from WHO, the Centers for Disease control, prevention of infectious Diseases in America, and the Center for Disease control and prevention of the EU, as well as relevant bodies in Europe, Australia and China. The experts took into account the available scientific data on the impact of huge crowds, especially in the seasons of Hajj and Umrah, and on ones health locally and globally. They have approached the national health plans to qualify for the Kingdom during the Hajj and Umrah seasons and visited a group of experts during this task to the points of entry to the UK and reference laboratories in the city of Jeddah. The team reviewed the work done by the Saudi Ministry of Health regarding the preventive measures against infectious diseases. In Egypt the Ministry of Health announced yesterday the discovery of new infections with H1N1 flu known as swine flu, increasing the number of cases to 72. Dr. Nasr El Sayed, Assistant Minister of Health for Preventive Medicine, said the new case is a 16 year-old girl who was accompanied by her family as they arrived from London. Her test results proved positive. He added that the girl had arrived at the Luxor International Airport on July 2 and was held in quarantine at the airport where she was then transferred to a hospital in Luxor. Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr. Margaret Chan, acknowledged: "The epidemic is out of control and it is no longer possible to stop the spread." In a related context, Tunisian travel agencies specialized in the organization of the Umrah flights registered losses worth 150 million dinars (approximately $110 million) after Tunisia abolished the Umrah trips because of fears of the spread of the virus.
