Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud has given out a grant of US$35 million to help fight Ebola in West Africa.
In a statement today, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali said that the Ebola fighting programme, initiated by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and implemented by IDB, comprises the following elements:
1- Providing schools with thermal sensors and medical examination equipment designed to diagnose the disease, thereby facilitating its treatment and preventing its spread. The equipment will allow governments to open schools for the current academic year. Pupils will be examined at entry to ensure they have not contracted the disease, thus reassuring parents about the safety of their children at school.
2- Providing thermal sensors and medical examination equipment at airports, railway stations and bus stations to diagnose the disease and ensure early treatment.
3- Establishing a specialized treatment centre in each of the three endemic countries, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, designed to serve suspected cases in schools, hospitals and public transport, and wherever contamination is likely to occur in crowded conditions. Suspected cases will be received in these centres for further medical tests before they are referred for specialized treatment if necessary.
4- Establishing a specialized treatment centre in Mali where Ebola appears to have broken out but is not widespread. The centre will help the country’s health authorities cope with potential epidemics in the future.
The IDB President said that the money would further boost the Islamic world’sefforts in supporting the international fight against Ebola, adding that the equipment financed by this donation would speed up the opening of schools in the countries concerned, reinforce the institutional and health infrastructure to fight the current epidemic and any potential epidemics in the future, Allah forbids, thus saving thousands of lives and ensuring the safety of those at risk of contamination.
Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali implored wished King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz long life to continue to save the lives of people in line with Allah’s saying in the Quran “and that whoever saves one life should be regarded as though he had saved all mankind“. He also prayed the Almighty to cure the sick and to protect humanity from all evils and disease.
[myad]
