background the annual hajj pilgrimage to mecca brings over two million people together in a small confined area. respiratory involvement is the most common disease during this ceremony, and up to now no unique cause has been identified. the present study was conducted to determine the incidence and types of respiratory diseases and their associated etiologic agents. materials and methods during...

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Millions of Muslims travel to Makkah every year to perform Hajj. Many pilgrims come from countries with a high incidence of tuberculosis (TB). Over-crowding, physical exhaustion, heat, and co-morbid conditions of mostly middle-aged and elderly pilgrims make them susceptible to infection, or reactivation of latent TB. Evidence from previous reports indicated a significant risk of acquiring infec...

Six cases of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W135 meningococcal infection have been reported in Turkey since 2003. Seven isolates recovered from four meningococcal meningitis patients and two asymptomatic carriers produced three distinct pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns. Multilocus sequence typing and antigen gene sequencing showed that five isolates were indistinguishable from...

Religious festivals attract a large number of pilgrims from worldwide and are a potential risk for the transmission of infectious diseases between pilgrims, and to the indigenous population. The gathering of a large number of pilgrims could compromise the health system of the host country. The threat to global health security posed by infectious diseases with epidemic potential shows the import...

OBJECTIVE To determine the level of knowledge of healthcare workers (HCWs) towards preventive measures for communicable diseases among pilgrims, and to highlight the difficulties faced by HCWs in implementing preventive measures at entry point. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted at King Abdulaziz International Airport Hajj Terminals in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during Hajj se...

BACKGROUND Approximately 80 000 Egyptians participate in Hajj pilgrimage annually. The purpose of this study was to estimate influenza virus and MERS-CoV prevalence among Egyptian pilgrims returning from Hajj. STUDY A cross-sectional survey among 3 364 returning Egyptian pilgrims from 2012 to 2015 was conducted. Nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) swabs were collected from all particip...

AIM To estimate the pharyngeal carriage rate of Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis), Streptococcus pneumoniae (S. pneumoniae) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) among Australian Hajj pilgrims. METHODS In 2014, surveillance was conducted in two phases among Australian Hajj pilgrims: The first phase during Hajj in Mina, and the second phase soon after returning home to Australia. Nasoph...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Each year millions of Muslims perform pilgrimage to Makkah, Saudi Arabia. It is particularly stressful during the peak five days, when all rituals have to be performed at specific periods of time at different sites. Poor diabetes control in people with diabetes predisposes to morbidity and increases risk of acute complications. We wanted to see how well their blood gluc...

We would like to thank J. Hajj-Chahine [1] for his insightful comments on our paper, specifically regarding the discrepancy in the outcomes of patients with postsurgical iatrogenic acute aortic dissection type A (iAADA) presented in our study [2] vs results others have reported [3–5]. We reported on 100 patients with iAADA enrolled in the German Registry for Acute Aortic Dissection Type A (GERA...