OBJECTIVE To document the pattern of medical diseases necessitating admission in a tertiary care hospital during Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj). To assess the risk factors associated with mortality during hospitalization. METHODS The study was conducted at Al Noor Specialist Hospital, a 550-bed tertiary care teaching hospital, in Makkah, KSA. The participants included all Hajj patients admitted in ...

Introduction: Hajj is an annual mass gathering of over 3.5 million pilgrims congregating from 200 countries in the desert climate of Saudi Arabia. Mass gathering medicine at Hajj is challenged by issues of healthcare accessibility, infection control, on-site treatment, referral, evacuation, and response to disasters and public health emergencies. The Indian Medical Mission at H...

To the Editor: Neisseria meningitidis is a gram-negative bacterium found only in humans and is a major cause of serious invasive diseases. Before 2006, in the People’s Republic of China, all meningococcal diseases were caused by serogroups A, B, and C. However, there are >13 serogroups of this organism. Three cases of infection with N. meningitidis serogroup W135 were reported in China during 2...

Crowd safety is a major concern for those attending and managing mass gatherings, such as the annual Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca (also called Makkah). One threat to crowd safety at such events is crowd density. However, recent research also suggests that psychological membership of crowds can have positive benefits. We tested the hypothesis that the effect of density on safety might vary depend...

This study represents the first time that molecular tracing techniques have been used to identify patterns of tuberculosis TB infection in Saudi Arabia. The 2 strains were isolated from a socio-economically advantage family who share a number of common facilities including a car and a driver. There are several factors that may play vital roles in on-going transmission of TB in Saudi Arabia incl...

BACKGROUND Indonesia provides the largest single source of pilgrims for the Hajj (10%). In the last two decades, mortality rates for Indonesian pilgrims ranged between 200-380 deaths per 100,000 pilgrims over the 10-week Hajj period. Reasons for high mortality are not well understood. In 2008, verbal autopsy was introduced to complement routine death certificates to explore cause of death diagn...