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The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), has confirmed that five Nigerian Pilgrims have so far lost their lives in Saudi Arabia.
This was revealed on Tuesday by the head of the National Medical Team, Dr Ibrahim Kana in a message to Journalists.
“So far, Nigeria has lost five pilgrims including three females and two males; out of which one died in Madina while the remaining four died in the city of Makkah. They all died of various illnesses including heart and lung diseases,” Dr Kana said.
The Doctor, who gave an update on the state of medical record of the Nigerian delegation said records from the Team’s Health Medical Records shows that so far in both Makkah and Madina, “ we have made 10, 485 diagnosis with Makkah accounting for over 60%”.
He also said 108 referrals were made to various Saudi Arabian hospitals after keeping 45 on observation for variety of illnesses in the four facilities in Madina and five in Makkah.
Dr Kana said in order to ameliorate the suffering of pilgrims, all the clinics are located within a stone throw to the pilgrims’ accommodation in both Makkah and Madina.
A total of 156,327.454 drugs have been consumed by Nigerian pilgrims “at no cost to them”.
He said NAHCON had prepared a drug forecast for the entire Hajj operation this year, including drugs for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis which were donated by the Federal Ministry of Health while the remaining were procured by the Commission, both onshore and offshore following government due process.
How to stay healthy
Dr Ibrahim Kana also gave Nigerian pilgrims tips to stay healthy owing to the high temperature in Saudi Arabia at this time.
”In terms of the wellbeing of pilgrims so far on the medical side, we are yet to encounter any serious situation or potential outbreak of any disease, except for the extreme temperatures which we admonish our pilgrims to stay indoors as much as possible,
” If they must go out, they should cultivate the use of umbrellas and consume plenty of cold water, ” he said.
Regarding concerns of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV), Dr Kana strongly advised pilgrims to stay away from camels which are the reservoir and vector for the transmission of the disease.
”We are also using this medium again to appeal to pilgrims to eat healthily and not patronise illegal food vendors in order to prevent cases of gastroenteritis as a result of food poisoning.
”Similarly, pilgrims are strongly advised not to consume stale food which get easily contaminated as a result of the high temperatures.
”We want to remind pilgrims accordingly that the medical personnel are in the Kingdom as a result of them and therefore free to indulge the free services while encouraging the personnel to be cautious and humane to the guest of Allah.
”As you know, all the NAHCON clinics are fully computerised, therefore pilgrims with the habit of patronising clinics just to received drugs would not be able to do that this time, ” Dr Kana said.
