For years, the United States and Saudi Arabia have been working together to fight breast cancer, and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, and the people of Saudi Arabia have made exciting progress on this issue. In 2009, King Abdulaziz University established the first center of excellence for breast cancer in the region. This was a proud moment for Saudi Arabia and an important step in its fight against breast cancer. This year, the Zahra Breast Cancer Foundation organized Riyadh's first “Walk for Cure” event in support of breast cancer awareness. It was a moving achievement, and over fifty women from the US Embassy participated in the walk. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are undertaking a number of innovative projects in Saudi Arabia to build local professional capacities among Saudi healthcare workers. Since 1988, CDC has been working with the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH), the National Guard Health Affairs, and other Saudi partners, to provide technical assistance and strengthen public health systems and institutions in Saudi Arabia. This month, a new CDC Resident Advisor joined the MOH Field Epidemiology Training Program. The program is a joint-project with the Saudi MOH's Department of Preventive Medicine and offers training to Saudi doctors on strengthening policies, programs and practices for prevention, surveillance, and control of diseases and injuries. The focus is on how to identify, investigate, and reduce or halt the burden of injuries and the spread of diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, food poisoning, and other infectious diseases. Since 1988, the intensive, two-year program has trained more than 130 Saudi doctors and several doctors from Oman. In addition, CDC has been working for the third year in a row with the Saudi MOH on a collaborative project to protect the health of pilgrims on the Haj. More than three million people from around 140 countries participated in the Haj this year. An annual gathering of people so large presents a number of public health challenges, including the potential for the spread of infectious diseases. CDC worked with the MOH to design, develop and deploy a mobile disease surveillance system to identify and track any potential disease outbreaks. The system aims to spot the early signs of outbreaks so that the MOH is able to take all necessary measures to investigate the cause and prevent any diseases from spreading to ensure that pilgrims can focus on their religious mission in a safe and healthy environment. Saudi-US cooperation in medicine extends to education and training, with growing numbers of Saudi students and doctors going to the United States for medical school and increasing linkages between Saudi and US medical institutions. Jizan University is one of the leaders in sending its students to the United States, having developed an exchange program with University of Illinois – Chicago and The George Washington University. The medical exchanges work in tandem with the King Abdullah Scholarship Program, now in its seventh year. Many of the students in the program are aspiring medical doctors in the first phase of their study, while others are taking United States Medical Licensing Exams (USMLE) preparatory classes and applying to US residency programs. We work closely with the Department of Medical Programs and Health Sciences at the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission in the United States, which has strong ties with leading US medical institutions and sponsored over 1,000 students and doctors enrolled in more than 50 affiliated universities and teaching hospitals across the United States in 2010. On December 1, we observed World Aids Day. As President Barack Obama explained in his proclamation, “we now know that treatment of HIV not only improves clinical outcomes, but can also dramatically reduce the risk of transmission.” The recent progress in treating and reducing the risk of transmission of HIV/AIDS makes it imperative that we work to raise awareness of the risk factors that contribute to spreading the disease. We applaud the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its successful efforts to raise awareness of the impact of HIV/AIDS. The progress in recent years in the fights against breast cancer and HIV/AIDS is inspiring, and it reminds us that success depends on contributions from everyone, not just the medical professionals. The Zahra Breast Cancer Foundation, an organization established and run by Saudi women, is an example of how people working together can contribute to the fight against disease. Through collaboration between Saudi Arabia and the United States, we will continue to make progress in the fight against diseases. (James B. Smith is the US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.) __
