What is the experience from previous mass gathering events? Lessons for Zika virus and the Olympics 2016.
All previous experiences from different mass gathering show that vaccine preventable diseases is the most important infections like influemza, hepatitis A, polio and meningitis. Three mass gathering held in Africa during the Ebola outbreak accepted participants from West Africa and was able to handle the theoretical risk without any incident. Therefore we believe that the Olympc games in Rio de Janeiro should not be canceled. The number of visitors to the games is a tine fraction (1%) of other visitors to Zika endemic con tries and it will have no measurable effect on the risk of spreading Zika virus, if the games was cancelled.
Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
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Zumla
Global Health Department, Public Health England, London, UK.
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B
McCloskey
Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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AA
Bin Saeed
Public Health England, London, UK.
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Dar
WHO Collaborating Centre for Mass Gatherings Medicine, Office of the Deputy Minister for Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
B
B
Al Otabi
Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa, Iowa, USA.
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Perlmann
Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Unit, North Hospital, Marseille, France.
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Gautret
Environmental Health Resource Hub, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, India.
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Roy
National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response, Sandringham, Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Blumberg
Special Infectious Agents Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center and Medical Laboratory Technology Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
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Azhar
World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Barbeschi
Ministry of Health, College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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Memish
Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark; Department of Infectious Diseases, The Royal Hospital, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. Electronic address: eskild.petersen@gmail.com.
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Petersen
D000349:Africa; D000354:Africa, Western; D003441:Crowding; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012306:Risk; D013177:Sports; D014195:Travel; D000071244:Zika Virus; D000071243:Zika Virus Infection / Q000635:transmission*
Hajj; Mass gatherings; Mela Kumba; Olympic games; Zika virus