Dubai, United Arab Emirates, September 28, 2014: His Excellency Engineer Essa Al Maidoor, Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority, visited today the Dubai International Airport for the Hajj awareness campaign.

Al Maidoor, said: “The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has developed a comprehensive plan to ensure the safety and comfort of Hajj pilgrims who will use the Dubai International Airport. The DHA expects about 10,000 pilgrims to travel from Dubai for the Hajj pilgrimage to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In addition to having three medical centres that are open 24 hours at Dubai International Airport, we have launched a Hajj awareness campaign at the airport to educate travellers about how to protect their health during the pilgrimage.”

Al Maidoor said that several doctors and nurses, equipped with the latest medical equipment, will be present in Terminal I and III and concourse A. These are the locations where DHA has its medical centres at Dubai International Airport.

Dr Abdulla  Al Naqbi, Director of Airport Medical Centre at the DHA, said: “As part of the Hajj awareness campaign, we are distributing health education brochures, medical packages that contain a first-aid kit, an umbrella and essential medicines. We are conducting free screenings including blood glucose tests for pilgrims and have in place a hand hygiene campaign.

He added: “We have a machine that uses ultraviolet rays to check whether the person has germs on his hands. After pilgrims wash their hands, we ask them to screen their hands under the machine to see if there are still germs lurking on the surface of their hands. This helps effectively communicate the importance of proper hand-hygiene to prevent the spread of germs.”

For further information, pilgrims can call 800 342.