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.

Emerging respiratory and novel coronavirus 2012 infections and mass gatherings.

Mass gatherings are attended by an increasingly global audience and thus raise the concern of possible acute public health risks not normally encountered by the host population. The potential acute risks to individual and population health include communicable diseases. The communicable disease risks include emerging and re-emerging diseases in host and visiting populations. In this review, we provide an overview ofthe literature on respiratory infections at mass gatherings, then describe the impact of novel coronavirus 2012 (nCoV), an emerging respiratory disease virus, on the preparations for mass gathering. Although, nCoV emerged prior to the 2012 Hajj pilgrimage season, Muslims completed their religious duty without acquiring infections by nCoV. Clearly, the global nature of mass gatherings and their potential risks to international health make it imperative that research on such events and guidelines produced for their management are relevant to diverse contexts and are a collaborative effort between global experts.

Establishment of public health security in Saudi Arabia for the 2009 Hajj in response to pandemic influenza A H1N1.

Mass gatherings of people challenge public health capacities at host locations and the visitors' places of origin. Hajj--the yearly pilgrimage by Muslims to Saudi Arabia--is one of the largest, most culturally and geographically diverse mass gatherings in the world. With the 2009 pandemic influenza A H1N1 and upcoming Hajj, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MoH) convened a preparedness consultation in June, 2009. Consultants from global public health agencies met in their official capacities with their Saudi Arabian counterparts. The MoH aimed to pool and share public health knowledge about mass gatherings, and review the country's preparedness plans, focusing on the prevention and control of pandemic influenza. This process resulted in several practical recommendations, many to be put into practice before the start of Hajj and the rest during Hajj. These preparedness plans should ensure the optimum provision of health services for pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, and minimum disease transmission on their return home. Review of the implementation of these recommendations and their effect will not only inform future mass gatherings in Saudi Arabia, but will also strengthen preparedness efforts in other settings.