What is the experience from previous mass gathering events? Lessons for Zika virus and the Olympics 2016

A Zumla; B McCloskey; A A Bin Saeed; O Dar; B Al Otabi; S Perlmann; P Gautret; N Roy; L Blumberg; E I Azhar; M Barbeschi; Z Memish; E Petersen

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2016.06.010

What is the experience from previous mass gathering events? Lessons for Zika virus and the Olympics 2016

Int J Infect Dis. 2016 Jun:47:1-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2016.06.010. Epub 2016 Jun 15.

Authors

A Zumla¹, B McCloskey², A A Bin Saeed³, O Dar⁴, B Al Otabi⁵, S Perlmann⁶, P Gautret⁷, N Roy⁸, L Blumberg⁹, E I Azhar¹⁰, M Barbeschi¹¹, Z Memish¹², E Petersen¹³

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
² Global Health Department, Public Health England, London, UK.
³ Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Public Health England, London, UK.
⁵ WHO Collaborating Centre for Mass Gatherings Medicine, Office of the Deputy Minister for Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Microbiology, University of Iowa, Iowa, USA.
⁷ Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Unit, North Hospital, Marseille, France.
⁸ Environmental Health Resource Hub, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, India.
⁹ National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response, Sandringham, Johannesburg, South Africa.
¹⁰ 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.
¹¹ World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹² Ministry of Health, College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
¹³ 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.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Hajj; Mass gatherings; Mela Kumba; Olympic games; Zika virus.

MeSH terms

Africa
Africa, Western
Crowding
Disease Outbreaks* / prevention & control
Female
Humans
Male
Risk
Sports*
Travel*
Zika Virus
Zika Virus Infection / transmission*