PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY PLACES OF ISLAM

The Ministry of Health and Social Action (MSAS) developed and validated on Friday a procedures manual with all those involved in the pilgrimage to the Holy Places of Islam. The system thus put in place aims to provide good health coverage of the religious event on a global scale.

According to the director of the fight against disease, Dr Mamadou Moustapha Diop, the pilgrimage is an important moment for all Muslims, particularly for the Senegalese, and adds that it is also a large human gathering. To this end, “the risks of disease occurrence” must be taken into account. Aware of the risks, “public and private doctors as well as experts have developed and validated a procedure manual, in an inclusive and participatory multi-sector approach,” he says, in line with the commitment of the new authorities to make hajj health coverage a priority.

The said manual adds the director of the fight against disease “is considered as a reverential allowing health professionals and missionaries, accompanying pilgrims to be able to have all the elements and information in terms of tasks in all stages of the pilgrimage”.
These steps, he underlines, “concern all the towns of Senegal where doctors are designated to carry out medical examinations of pilgrims. The manual will also concern the stages of Medina, Mecca, Mouna, Arafat… on the way there and on the way back.”

He also promises that “everything that needs to be done will be done in a manner to allow pilgrims to be able to carry out the pilgrimage to Mecca in optimal conditions”. The document is considered by the authors as a face-to-face recommendation of the latest editions, the results of which were presented in order to provide contributions from stakeholders.