Database to battle outbreaks

Alison McMeans

• Last Updated: December 21. 2008 12:21AM UAE / December 20. 2008 8:21PM GMT

ABU DHABI // Gulf states plan to create an alert system to help isolate outbreaks of infectious disease.

Gulf health ministers are meeting today in Riyadh to discuss the creation of a database of infectious disease incidence to help plan strategies on shared public-health issues. The database would also help in the event of bioterrorism.

Nasser Khalifa al Budoor, the director of foreign affairs and international organisations at the Ministry of Health, said the ministers would discuss “a regional electronic alert system” which would increase the “speed of co-ordinated data exchange between member states” in cases of epidemic.

“When you have good statistics and can transfer information through the network, you will know what you need to do to combat the problem,” Mr al Budoor said.

Details of the system are not final and while it is expected to be operational soon, a timetable has not been agreed.

Similar systems in other parts the world use “syndromic surveillance” to look for patterns of illness, in the hope that their spread is caught early enough to prevent epidemics.

Dr John Bartlett, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said: “Pandemic influenza is the big scare now. The people that die of influenza are usually very young or very old, so if the people dying are in their 30s then I think people would say that is alarming.

“These diseases can travel quickly. Pandemic flu can take two months to go through a geographical region and six months to travel around the world. The key to limiting its spread is early government intervention.

“The sooner the government knows about the problem the more likely they are to be able to limit it.”

Dr Idris Elhaj, a consultant at Al Noor Hospital, said: “With the borders between the countries in this area – things can easily cross from one area to another – what is going on in one country helps others to take precautions.”

He said the alert system could help prevent the spread of diseases such as Sars and bird flu.

However, such a system would require standardised medical training across the GCC, a problem for the Middle East where different countries have widely differing medical standards.

“There are differences in training but the fact remains that to control epidemics you need information from all these countries.”

The system would also be useful to track other public health concerns such as diabetes and tobacco-related diseases.

“It will help us keep track of diseases – especially diabetes,” Mr al Budoor said. “Diabetes is a big problem in this country. It will list everything about diabetes. ... It will be a wealth of information for the GCC.”

Diabetes will be discussed at the meeting of the ministers along with plans for a Gulf-wide healthy-heart campaign. One-third of deaths in the region are caused by heart disease.

Ministers will also discuss whether to require warnings on cigarette boxes to reduce smoking and decide whether alternative medicines should be regulated.