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R/£ Flu fears as pilgrims gather
November 26, 2009 Edition 1
MECCA: The world's largest annual religious pilgrimage began in pouring rain yesterday, overshadowed by the swine flu pandemic as 2.5 million Muslims amassed at the holy city of Mecca for the hajj.
The rare rainstorm and possible banned protests by Iranian pilgrims also threatened to mar the four-day hajj, but Saudi officials said they were prepared for all eventualities.
A sea of pilgrims from all over the world, dressed in flowing white robes, surrounded the Kaaba shrine inside Mecca's Grand Mosque for dawn prayers yesterday.
Four pilgrims, all of them already suffering from other health problems, died from swine flu ahead of the official start of the rites.
But proven and suspected infections amid hajj participants numbered only 67, Saudi Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Marghlani said.
"Everything is going smoothly, thanks to God."
The flu has killed some 6 750 people around the world this year, according to the World Health Organisation, and Saudi authorities have deployed as many as 20 000 health workers.
Relatively few pilgrims could be seen wearing surgical masks widely distributed by the Saudi Health Ministry, despite the first report of H1N1 deaths on Saturday.
The infections detected so far were scattered among pilgrims from different countries and no concentration in any one source, Marghlani said.
Likewise, the four dead had arrived from four different countries - three from Asia and one from Africa.
Marghlani said the threat of heavy rains could raise the health risks for pilgrims, but health authorities had "planned for this possibility". - Sapa-AFP
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