Hajj: infectious disease surveillance and control
The Lancet·
- DOI
- 10.1016/s0140-6736(14)60381-0
- PMID
- 24857703
- PMCID
- PMC7137990
- OpenAlex
- W2003895765
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The authors highlight that large religious gatherings pose risks for infectious disease transmission among pilgrims and to host populations, may stress the host health system, and require advance surveillance and response planning given epidemic potential.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The report describes public health planning, surveillance systems, and health services used during two large religious gatherings in Saudi Arabia.
Study design
The abstract describes this as a descriptive report covering public health planning and surveillance activities during two consecutive annual events.
Population and setting
The setting is the Hajj in Saudi Arabia across 2012 and 2013, involving more than 5 million pilgrims arriving from 184 countries.
Main findings
Saudi Arabia applied an extensive public health framework, including surveillance, to support care during two Hajj seasons that together drew over 5 million international pilgrims. The report also notes the creation of a Global Center for Mass Gathering Medicine through a partnership involving Saudi authorities, a WHO Collaborating Centre, Gulf Cooperation Council states, UK universities, and other global public health institutions.
Public-health relevance
The authors highlight that large religious gatherings pose risks for infectious disease transmission among pilgrims and to host populations, may stress the host health system, and require advance surveillance and response planning given epidemic potential.
Important limitations
This summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and bibliographic metadata and does not include the original paper; detailed methodological and interpretive limitations cannot be assessed from the abstract alone.
GIDS interpretation
The article is relevant as background context on surveillance and mass-gathering preparedness, but no connection to a live surveillance signal can be made from the supplied abstract/metadata.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 10 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.