Saudi MOH: 1 New MERS Case & New Awareness Campaign

# 7981

 

For the second day in a row, the Saudi MOH has only announced 1 new MERS cases (along with 1 recovery, and 1 death), again from Riyadh.

 

Meanwhile, there’s a new hash tag, and MERS meme, on twitter this morning   (#نقدر_نوقفها  aka "we stop") courtesy of the Saudi MOH promoting their new MERS prevention social media campaign.  This appears to be an extension of the awareness campaign begun last month (see Saudi MOH: New MERS Awareness Video PSAs).

 

Already several hundred tweets (and re-tweets) with links to videos, brochures, and infographics have been posted over the past few hours.

 

 
This (translated) statement from the Saudi MOH website:

 

Under the slogan (#نقدر_نوقفها) health awareness campaign continues with the coronavirus

13 April 1436

Under the slogan "we stop" Ministry of health today launched a new phase of its campaign to raise awareness of health disease HIV/AIDS Middle East respiratory Corona (MERS-COV) and the Ministry of these steps aim to engage all members of society with different classes and strata in the further definition of the disease, and provide them with updates and prevention methods through a combination of media playback and broadcast in addition to social media such as Twitter, Facebook and text messages as part of an integrated plan to achieve the goal of reaching all segments of society in the various categories Depending on the disease.

This phase involves the preparation of a set of affinity means of brochures about the disease and ways to prevent it, and also the surface plates and roll for use in healthcare facilities and locations of assemblies, and plan the use of advertising and informational beeps on the radio and television channels, in addition to awareness advertisements in a number of newspapers and media and social media.

This stage to complement the health awareness campaign with the previous stages of coronavirus, which included several events and activities including press conferences of Ministry and who experts and television meetings and interviews on TV and radio, in addition to issuing press releases on a regular basis.

And harness the Health Ministry representative in the command and control of all their potential and expertise in tracking the disease, find out ways of transmission and protection, providing comprehensive health care to the injured. The Ministry in cooperation with the World Health Organization and the Centers for disease control and prevention, USA and a number of specialized medical centers to learn more about the disease. as with many sectors of Government to strengthen the efforts and goals of the campaign.

It is worth mentioning that this campaign is a direct follow-up of his Excellency Mr. Ahmed Ibn Aqeel Al-Khatib as they come further to the efforts undertaken by the Ministry of health throughout the year to tackle the virus and to protect all members of society with God from infection.

 

While public awareness is important, we are nearly three years down this MERS road and are still largely in the dark regarding how it is being spread on the Arabian peninsula (see WHO MERS Update & The Community Transmission Mystery).