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Stay away from camels, govt tells pilgrims

Helping hand: Officials help an elderly woman on a wheel chair travel to Juanda International Airport in Surabaya to join the haj pilgrimage, on Friday

Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, August 24, 2015

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Stay away from camels, govt tells pilgrims Helping hand: Officials help an elderly woman on a wheel chair travel to Juanda International Airport in Surabaya to join the haj pilgrimage, on Friday. 419 haj pilgrims traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, from in Surabaya.(Antara/Zabur Karuru) (Antara/Zabur Karuru)

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span class="inline inline-center">Helping hand: Officials help an elderly woman on a wheel chair travel to Juanda International Airport in Surabaya to join the haj pilgrimage, on Friday. 419 haj pilgrims traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, from in Surabaya.(Antara/Zabur Karuru)

As part of efforts to prevent Indonesian haj pilgrims from becoming infected in a new surge of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the Religious Affairs Ministry has prohibited pilgrims from having contact with any animals in Saudi Arabia, camels in particular, in addition to several other guidelines.

Additionally, all haj pilgrims must avoid consuming camel milk during their stay in Saudi Arabia as a further precaution against the coronavirus that has spread extensively across the holy land during the last few weeks, the ministry'€™s director general for haj and minor haj, Abdul Jamil, said.

'€œThis is a serious disease. We must be extra careful and take all measures to make sure that our pilgrims are safe and will return home safe to avoid a potential spread of the disease when they are back in Indonesia,'€ Jamil told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Besides the regulation on no exposure to animals, Jamil said the ministry also advised haj pilgrims to make regular visits to medical workers available in the dormitories to be used by all 371 groups of 168,000 Indonesians joining the haj pilgrimage this year.

He said that the government had set up medical centers in three cities: Madinah, Mecca and Harakah.

'€œWe strongly suggest all Indonesian pilgrims visit our medical centers frequently. Do not hesitate to consult our medical workers there with any health complaints, however insignificant they might appear,'€ Jamil said.

He, however, warned pilgrims against joining crowds particularly at policlinics and emergency rooms of local hospitals, citing the spread of the disease at King Abdul Aziz Medical City, one of Saudi Arabia'€™s largest medical facilities, which forced the closure of its emergency ward.

The emerging cases of MERS in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, have triggered fears of another potential outbreak as more than 2 million Muslims from all over the world, including from Indonesia, begin to arrive for the annual haj pilgrimage.

At least 4,024 people from Indonesia alone departed for Madinah on Friday.

The Indonesian government has not received any reports of health-related complaints from the first batch of pilgrims so far, according to the Religious Affairs Ministry.

However, relevant agencies in charge of arranging the pilgrimage program have braced for the worst as Riyadh has seen more than 40 cases of the disease affecting health workers in the space of a week.

The latest deaths occurred in Riyadh, and the victims were all Saudis aged 65 to 86, the Saudi Arabian Health Ministry said.

The new cases bring the total number of people who have contracted the virus to 1,134, with a death toll of 486.

Saudi Arabia has been worst hit by the coronavirus, which first appeared in 2012.

The Al Arabiya newspaper reported that a prototype vaccine against MERS had shown promising results.

A study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine suggests the vaccine guards against the disease in monkeys and camels. The researchers, led by the University of Pennsylvania, say their experimental vaccine could be a '€œvaluable tool'€ in two different ways '€” first, to immunize camels to stop them spreading the disease to human populations and, second, as a jab to protect individuals at risk of getting MERS.

In the trial, the vaccine was tested on blood samples taken from camels and appeared to kick-start the production of antibody proteins that may help mount a defence against the virus. And when it was given to macaque monkeys later exposed to MERS, the animals did not
become ill.

The Health Ministry has also formulated practical dos and don'€™ts for all Indonesian pilgrims, which include the suggestion to frequently wash hands using soap in order to reduce the chance of being infected.

'€œAdditionally, avoid touching your nose and mouth with your hands,'€ the Health Ministry'€™s research and development agency head, Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said.

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