By Idris Abdulrahman
Madinah (Saudi Arabia) – The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) says it has revived its Health Awareness Committee (HAC) to collaborate with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health in creating awareness among Nigerian pilgrims.
Head, National Medical Team of HAHCON, Dr Ibrahim Kana, disclosed this to newsmen on a National Hajj Media Team platform, on Thursday.
“The HAC worked creditably well last year. The Nigerian Health Ministry has an excellent relationship with its Saudi counterpart.
“The committee is expected to develop awareness creation system directly to the pilgrims by visiting and interacting with them in their residences,’’ he said.
Kana said that the committee would swing into action on Thursday at a meeting in Makkah.
He said that the team was also partnering World Health Organisation’s Global Centre for Mass Gathering Medicines in Riyadh on a research entitled: “Exploring the Experience of Pilgrims and Enablers and Barriers to health promotion at Hajj.”
“This is a multinational survey involving countries with large pilgrim population,’’ he said, adding that the Chief Executive Officer of NAHCON had approved a team of five experts to be part of the research.
“We can talk more on this and other surveys that we are conducting, including the effects of heat on pilgrims and flu among pilgrims.
“We take throat swab from pilgrims to isolate specific organisms causing flu during Hajj; this has been ongoing and The Louise Pasteur Laboratory in Paris conduct the analysis for us,” Kana said.
