Global perspectives for prevention of infectious diseases associated with mass gatherings

Outbreaks associated to large open air festivals, including music festivals, 1980 to 2012

“…We describe various outbreaks related to large scale open air festivals, highlighting the fact that at these gatherings of people where the majority of attendees are aged 15 to 30 years, transmission of infections occurs at local, national [15,17,21] and international levels [24,25,29], as found during larger MGs [8]. Within open air festivals, music festivals contributed a large proportion of the outbreaks.…”

“…Outbreaks in relation with sport events, Hajj pilgrimage, food festivals, fairs or occurring in the setting of cruise ship, school, restaurant or hotel (including weddings at restaurants or hotels) were excluded because they were reviewed elsewhere [6][7][8].…”

“…According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) during the year 2009, the total number of visits to UK music festivals was estimated to exceed 7.7 million attendees, including overseas and domestic participants combined (www.ukmusic.org/assets/media/UK%20Music%20 -Music%20Tourism.pdf). Music festivals, which may involve as many as 400,000 cumulated attendees, share the usual health risks associated with large MGs, including communicable and non-communicable diseases [6][7][8]. A mean percentage of 1.5% attendees at music festivals seek medical care during these events, and the highest proportion recorded of attendees seeking care was 10% [9][10][11][12].…”

Self-Assessment of mass gathering (Hajj) pharmaceutical care program in Saudi Arabia

“…It discussed the common diseases found during Hajj period, MOH operation plan at Hajj, the emergence of medicine at Hajj, Non-communicable potential risks of mass gathering Hajj, Infectious disease surveillance at Hajj, hospital infection control, and researchers model of mass gathering medicine and application during Hajj period. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Although few studies discussed medication related issues, for the instant; the report by Al-Tawfiq JA that 84% of pilgrims received antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infection, 17% of Pakistani pilgrims received antibiotics, the most medication during Hajj for prophylaxis Ciprofloxacin. [16] Another study discussed the outpatient services during Hajj at one hospital; they found the most medication prescribed Antibiotics 43.3% followed by an Analgesics and Antipyretic 25.2% and Medication for Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD), Chronic Renal Failure (CRF), and Central nervous system disorder (CNS disorder).…”

Infectious diseases prioritisation for event-based surveillance at the European Union level for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

“…Non-infectious environmental events were not prioritised. In the absence of a standard method, prioritisation of infectious diseases for event-based surveillance during each MG is usually achieved empirically [11][12][13][14][15].…”