Thousands cancel pilgrimage amid swine flu fears

Thousands of Egyptians have cancelled their plans to travel to Saudi Arabia on their minor pilgrimage later in May due to fearts about swine flu, it was reported on Saturday.

Figures from the Chamber of Commerce show that booking rates are down by 60 percent for the Umra to Makkah, according to vice president of the chamber Nasser Turki.
 
The cancellations followed an announcement by the health minister that he was considering banning pilgrims from traveling for three weeks as part of the Egyptian government’s response to the outbreak of H1N1, Turki said, according to Egyptian website Almasny Alyoum.

The Middle East has only seen seven confirmed cases of swine flu that have been limited to Israeli citizens, a number of whom had recently been in Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak.

No suspected cases of the virus have been reported in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that if the virus enters Africa it could cause more deaths as the region has fewer resources to deal with an outbreak.

Furthermore, mass pilgrimages to Makkah have resulted in deaths from infectious diseases before.

In 2001 35 people contracted meningitis and 10 people died after attending the Hajj, which attracts millions of people from all over the world, resulting in a crowded environment where viruses can easily spread.

Egypt has already stoked international controversy by culling a major proportion of its pig population in response to the swine flu threat, despite WHO saying there is no evidence the virus is passed from pigs to humans, or can be contracted by eating pig products.

So far 17,374 pigs have been slaughtered under orders of the Ministry of the Environment, most of which were rounded up from the Greater Cairo area.

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