NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
UAE plans prepared for swine flu outbreak
UAE - APR 27: Health officials and experts held an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss the UAE’s response to a possible swine flu pandemic.
The Avian Influenza Emergency Committee met to prepare a plan that would affect airports, hospitals and doctors if cases of the virus were found in the Emirates.
Dr Ali Al Marzouqi, the head of public health affairs at the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), said the committee had already put the airport’s clinic on alert to be vigilant for flu-like symptoms and had checked the country’s stocks of one of the medications used to prevent and treat the flu.
“We have had an emergency meeting with Dubai Municipality,” he said. “The reason we met was we had a committee against avian flu which is still functioning.
“They are very experienced and we thought we would use the same resources and expertise to get involved in this.”
He said the committee had established that Dubai alone has one million Tamiflu capsules, one of two medications shown to be most effective if taken within 48 hours of the first flu symptoms.
“We have also identified the capacity of beds in case we need to isolate people,” he said.
“We have alerted the isolation ward at Rashid Hospital. We have worked out how many isolation beds we have so we are fully prepared.”
He also said there would be a meeting today with the Ministry of Health to ensure things were in place on a federal level.
The ministry said it was awaiting instructions from the World Health Organization (WHO) before putting any restrictions, such as travel advisories, in place.
Dr Ali bin Shakar, director general of the ministry, said it was in “constant contact with WHO” and had someone on standby to receive any new directives. The flu, a mixture of swine, human and avian viruses, has killed at least 68 people in Mexico and infected at least eight people in the US. Most of those affected were between 25 and 45 years old.
The WHO said officials were trying to identify the origin on the outbreak.
Dr Marzouqi said the committee had prepared a document to assist doctors around the UAE.
“This includes questions and answers and all the information on symptoms and the protocol to follow if a case was confirmed. It means they will know what to do and who to contact, and also what to look out for.”
Dubai airport recently reported that passenger traffic for the first quarter of this year reached more than 9.5 million, or an average 105,555 a day. It is one of the world’s 10 busiest airports.
Dr Marzouqi said he would be meeting Emirates Airline officials tomorrow to discuss possible restrictions and would stay in contact with airport management. An airport spokeswoman said no instructions had yet been received regarding restricting flights.
According to the news agency Reuters, countries across Asia have already taken firm action. Officials have been screening travellers for flu-like symptoms at airports and other border checkpoints in Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
Doctors said that because the UAE was a major transit point for travellers, it was under more threat from infection than other countries in the region.
Dr Mansour al Zarouni, head of pathology and laboratory medicine and chairman of the infection control committee at Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah, said Dubai’s position as a transit city would put it at much greater threat than other Middle Eastern centres.
“There could be hundreds or maybe thousands of cases before it is detected in other countries,” he said. “By that time it is too late because many of these people have travelled, and to travel to Europe, for example, they have to stop in Dubai.”
Dr Zarouni, who used to be on the Ministry of Health’s infection control committee, said the UAE might not be able to prevent the influenza from entering the country, but it should make every effort to contain it.
“The most important thing is how do we react. We need to make sure we have good drug stocks and plans of isolation if cases are found.”
On Saturday the World Health Organisation held an emergency teleconference in Geneva to consider issuing travel advisories, border closures and restrictions.
A statement issued by the director general, Margaret Chan, said it had been agreed that “the current situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern” and advised that “all countries intensify surveillance for unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia”.
Yesterday, a WHO spokeswoman said there would be another teleconference tomorrow to discuss any new developments.
She said the committee would also discuss whether to raise the pandemic level from three, on a scale of six.
Dr Ziad Memish, director of the GCC’s centre for infection control, said the centre was waiting to hear from the WHO before circulating anything to the GCC countries.
“We are following this closely and are awaiting further instructions from before we send anything out to the countries,” he said.
First lane opens on capital bridge
ABU DHABI - APR 27: The first lane of highway on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Bridge has been completed, allowing construction lorries to cross the water on what will be the longest bridge in the UAE. The Dh671 million (US$183m) link connects the capital to the emerging cultural district on Saadiyat Island.
On a visit, The National saw the bridge being prepared for its final phase of construction, including painting, the addition of protection barriers, architectural cladding and lights. Access ramps in the Mina Zayed port area and on the southern tip of Saadiyat also require work.
“We are currently at 85 per cent completion and will be ready for opening in September,” said a statement from the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC).
It added that the bridge would assist in “implementing the 2030 UPC plan for Abu Dhabi and eases the movement of traffic through the capital”.
Once completed, the 10-lane bridge will allow vehicles to travel to Saadiyat Island from downtown Abu Dhabi in five minutes, officials have said. At 1.45km it will be the longest bridge in the UAE and one of the largest in the GCC.
Additional corridors will accommodate two future rail lines.
The bridge should ease the congestion on Salam Street and also improve access to the Abu Dhabi-Dubai motorway, allowing traffic able to traverse Saadiyat to Yas Island and to the mainland, the TDIC said.
In time, it will also merge into the 6.5km Saadiyat Link road to connect Shahama district to Saadiyat Island.
The Saadiyat Link is also due for completion in September. It is expected that the driving time between Saadiyat and Abu Dhabi International Airport will be about 15 minutes.
Child abuse parents jailed for 10 years
ABU DHABI - APR 27: A couple who severely abused their nine-year-old daughter were sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday.
The Criminal Court of First Instance also fined them Dh160,000 (US$44,000), the maximum penalty available.
The verdict was delivered in a short hearing at which no evidence was given. The girl’s stepmother, who confessed in court last week to burning the child’s thigh using a hot knife, was absent.
The case came to light after the girl’s father took her to Al Mafraq Hospital with bruises and burns on her body, claiming that she had fallen off her bicycle.
However, her injuries did not match the father’s version of events and she showed signs of abuse, so doctors called in police.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, visited her in hospital, and both he and Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Minister of Interior, spoke out against child abuse.
In the first hearing last week, the father confessed to beating his daughter with a stick, but denied causing her disability.
He repeatedly told the judge that he “was only trying to protect her”. The stepmother also admitted beating the child. Neither was represented by a lawyer at the hearings.
Also during the earlier hearing, the father’s mother wept as she said she saw bruises on her granddaughter.
Dr Leena Amiri, a child psychiatrist and lecturer at Al Ain University Medical School, has been assigned to the girl’s case.
“Right now, there is a focus on her physical health, but once she has recovered from that we will start her mental rehabilitation process,” Dr Amiri said.
During the court case, prosecutors alleged that the child had been severely beaten to the point where she became 80 per cent immobile.
Dr Amiri said she was hopeful that the girl could be successfully rehabilitated. “There are children who go through such trauma and come out of it untouched. Children are resilient.
“There is no doubt there will be long-term wounds, but I am hopeful we as a nation can rise to his challenge. The question is, what is next? How do we learn from this mistake?
“I have come across lots of abuse cases but never to this severity. I hope this will send a clear message that children should never be victimised and that those who witness child abuse should report it.
“There is a dire need to adopt specific laws for child abuse and now is the time.”
Work started on the UAE’s first federal child protection law last year and a spokeswoman at the Ministry of Social Affairs said yesterday that a draft was being prepared and the next step would be to bring it before the Federal National Council. The spokeswoman declined to give a time frame.
Allaa Allam, a lawyer in Abu Dhabi, said existing laws could be used to prosecute child abusers.
“Don’t think that parents who treat their children in this manner will walk away free,” he said.
“There are penal laws for discipline and these parents received the maximum sentence so the courts are clearly sending a message that a line has been crossed.”
While the law gives parents the right to discipline their children within reason, the criminal penal code offers children no protection beyond that offered to any person who is abused or beaten.
Under the country’s civil law, a parent or the state can seize a child if abuse is prevalent.
The new child protection law is expected to include specific criminal charges for severe child abuse, and measures for the rehabilitation of victims.
In this case, the parents were tried under criminal charges. “The law gives parents the licence to discipline leniently, but there is no additional protection,” said Mr Allam.
“It is the same as two people fighting in the street and one is severely beaten. The one who beats will be tried criminally.”
The court did not deliver any verdict regarding the couple’s two other children or whether the parents would be allowed access to their daughter after their release.
It was not yet known whether the grandmother would take in the other children or if the child’s mother, who was believed to be living in Egypt, would take custody of her daughter.
It was the first time journalists and television cameras have been allowed inside the courts at the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department since its creation in May 2007.
The couple have 30 days to appeal, after which they can be named.
Sites kept clear for future transit links
ABU DHABI - APR 27:The Department of Transport has begun securing areas of the capital for transit corridors to prevent them being lost to other construction work.
While detailed feasibility studies for a tram and metro network, key elements in the Surface Transport Master Plan (STMP), have not begun, the DoT has been taking sometimes urgent steps to make sure developers know the locations of planned stations and lines.
To encourage use of the transport system and ensure it is easily accessible, the department has been working with developers to position stations in or near “trip generators,” such as malls.
It also wants to make sure there will be stations in high-density areas and that there will be direct transfers between the different modes of transport. The department foresees between 30 and 40 per cent of journeys being made by public transport by 2030.
“We found that because developers were moving ahead quickly, we had to jump in quick and identify things,” said Jumana Nabti, public transport strategy and policy specialist for the department. A clear example was at Yas Island, the home of this year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where the department worked with Aldar, the island’s developer, to site a metro station within 150m of the front of the planned Yas Mall.
Under the developer’s plan, the station would have been about 400m from the mall, perhaps too far for shoppers carrying packages to consider using it, Ms Nabti told an urban transportation conference at the Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel and Resort.
Construction at Yas had been under way since 2007, while the department’s master plan was commissioned only in February 2008. So even as the department was working on its plan, it had to move quickly to ensure the sites it needed for its integrated transit network would be kept.
In some cases, the department was barely able to get its preferred alignment incorporated into an existing plan but in other cases it was able to work with developers to increase density around transport stations and make the areas more walkable, Ms Nabti said.
Al Raha Beach was one development where elements of the design of the stations were tweaked to integrate into the department’s system. The developers designed their entire projects around a tram line.
The DoT also got in early at developments at Sowwah, Reem and Saadiyat islands, Masdar city, the Capital District, Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre and Zayed Sports City, she said. At some, station boxes are to be constructed so developers can foresee where the transit hub will go, while designs have been taken to a detailed level at others.
“We realised that going through the entire STMP process and then detailing its alignments wasn’t going to be enough,” said Ms Nabti. “We are working with developers to make sure we are giving them enough detail to make it useful for them to save those corridors.”
There will still be some flexibility of where on a site the stations have to go.
Ms Nabti said provisions for pedestrians were to be included in all station plans and there should be facilities for bicycles, as well.
Also yesterday, Abdulla al Otaiba, chairman of the department, said that a planned second motorway to Dubai, running parallel to the E11 and linking with Emirates Road, would be built within the next five years. The plan had been unveiled earlier in the STMP.
A detailed report on the master plan, including an action plan, is expected to be released by the department in the next two weeks.