scholarly journals High Vaccine Coverage is Crucial for Preventing the Spread of Infectious Diseases During Mass Gathering

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susu Zughaier
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Seasonal Influenza ◽  
Vaccine Coverage ◽  
Coverage Rate ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
World Cup ◽  
High Coverage ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
The World ◽  
Coverage Rates

Background: Vaccines are the most cost-effective intervention in public health as they prevent the spread of highly contagious infectious diseases. Because of vaccine implementation and high coverage, Measles was eradicated in 2000, however the recent reappearance of measles in the United States, Europe and globally is alarming. The resurgence of Measles, Diphtheria and Mumps is due to a reduction in vaccine coverage and herd immunity. Vaccine hesitant parents, antivaxxers, and fake news on vaccines are driving the surge in those infectious diseases. The World Health Organization issued the Global Vaccine and Immunization Action Plan to reiterate the importance of vaccine implementation and coverage for several vaccine-preventable infectious diseases in the world. Qatar is preparing for the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2022 therefore maintaining high vaccine coverage, which is critical in preventing infectious diseases spreading during such mass gathering. Methods: Literature search for vaccine coverage rates, resurgence of vaccine preventable infectious diseases and risks of mass gatherings. Results: Seventeen infectious diseases are currently vaccine-preventable. The cost-effectiveness of vaccine is documented as it is estimated for each dollar spent on vaccines, 10 dollars are saved in disease treatment. A drop in vaccine coverage rates to under 90% lead to the resurgence of measles. Vaccine coverage rate in Qatar is currently at 95% which is one of the highest in the world. Qatar must maintain this high coverage rate to prevent any measles outbreaks during mass gatherings. The planned World Cup event will take place from November 21 till December 18 2022, which is the peak for seasonal influenza. In preparedness for this major event, Qatar should encourage residents and visitors to be vaccinated not just against measles and seasonal influenza, but also hepatitis and meningitis. Conclusion: Maintaining 95% vaccine coverage rate is critical for preventing the resurgence of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases during the World Cup mass gathering in Qatar.

scholarly journals A Spatial Agent-Based Model to Assess the Spread of Malaria in Relation to Anti-Malaria Interventions in Southeast Iran

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 549
Author(s):  
Navid Mahdizadeh Gharakhanlou ◽  
Navid Hooshangi ◽  
Marco Helbich
Keyword(s):  
Indoor Residual Spraying ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Agent Based Model ◽  
Malaria Endemic Area ◽  
High Coverage ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
The World ◽  
Coverage Rates ◽  
Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets ◽  
Malaria Interventions

Malaria threatens the lives of many people throughout the world. To counteract its spread, knowledge of the prevalence of malaria and the effectiveness of intervention strategies is of great importance. The aim of this study was to assess (1) the spread of malaria by means of a spatial agent-based model (ABM) and (2) the effectiveness of several interventions in controlling the spread of malaria. We focused on Sarbaz county in Iran, a malaria-endemic area where the prevalence rate is high. Our ABM, which was carried out in two steps, considers humans and mosquitoes along with their attributes and behaviors as agents, while the environment is made up of diverse environmental factors, namely air temperature, relative humidity, vegetation, altitude, distance from rivers and reservoirs, and population density, the first three of which change over time. As control interventions, we included long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS). The simulation results showed that applying LLINs and IRS in combination, rather than separately, was most efficient in reducing the number of infected humans. In addition, LLINs and IRS with moderate or high and high coverage rates, respectively, had significant effects on reducing the number of infected humans when applied separately. Our results can assist health policymakers in selecting appropriate intervention strategies in Iran to reduce malaria transmission.

scholarly journals Health risks during the Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean: surveillance and assessment in the French départements

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Collective Editorial team
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Public Health Risk ◽  
Sporting Event ◽  
The Caribbean

The ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) is the world’s third largest sporting event. (...) As with any mass gathering, there is an added public health risk [1]. Some of the visitors are coming from countries where infectious diseases are either endemic or capable of creating an epidemic.

scholarly journals Tablet-based participatory syndromic surveillance at Simhashta festival in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishal Diwan ◽  
Anette Hulth ◽  
Ponnaiah Manickam ◽  
Viduthalai V Balagurusamy ◽  
Deepak Agnihotri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Surveillance System ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Central India ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
Summary Report ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance System ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
The World

Objective: To develop, test and study tablet-based participatory syndromic surveillance system for common infectious disease conditions at community level in Simhashta religious mass gathering in Ujjain, India, 2016.Introduction: Infectious disease surveillance for generating early warnings to enable a prompt response during mass gatherings has long been a challenge in India 1,2 as well as in other parts of the world 3,4,5. Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh in Central India hosted one of the largest religious festival in the world called ‘Simhasth kumbh mela’ on the banks of River Kshipra, where more than 50 million attendees came for holy dip during April 22 to May 21, 2016. The attendees included pilgrims (residents and visitors), observers, officials and volunteers. We developed an android application with automated summary reports and an interactive dashboard for syndromic surveillance during the gathering.Methods: We established the participatory surveillance at all 22 sectors of the festival area, and at 20 out-patient hospitals and 12 pharmacies. We trained 55 nursing and social work graduate trainees to collect data from all these settings. The data collectors visited designated spots daily during a fixed time and collected age, gender, residence and self-reported symptoms from consenting attendees during the festival period. The application automatically added date, time and location of interview to each record and data was transmitted to a web server. We monitored the data in the interactive dashboard and prepared summary report on a periodic basis. Daily summary report of self-reported symptoms by time, place and person was shared daily evening with the festival surveillance authority.Results: Of the total 93,020 invited pilgrims, 91% participated in the surveillance. Almost 90% of those were from outside the festival city, 60% were men and 57% were aged 15 to 44 years. Almost 50% of them self-reported presence of at least one symptom. Most frequently reported symptoms were dehydration due to heat (13%), cold (13%), fever (7%) and loose stool (5%). During the festival period of over one month, surveillance data indicated increasing trends of self-reported cough and fever and declining trends of self-reported dehydration (Figure-1). The designated public health authorities for the festival did make use of the information for appropriate action. This tablet-based application was able to collect, process and visualise around 2500 records per day from the community without any data loss.Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report from India documenting real-time surveillance of the community using hand-held devices during a mass gathering. Despite some implementation issues and limitations in the approach and data collected, the use of digital technology provided well-timed information avoiding tedious manual work and reduced a good amount of human resources and logistics involved in reporting symptoms with a traditional paper-based method in such a large population. In retrospect, the main utility of the surveillance output was that of giving reassurance to the officials, as no major outbreaks occurred during the event. We believe that this experience and further analyses will provide input for the establishment and use of such a surveillance system during mass gatherings. The team of investigators propose improving the methods and tools for future use.

scholarly journals Developing Legacy: Health Planning in the Host City of Porto Alegre for the 2014 Football World Cup

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 613-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Rigatto Witt ◽  
Mauro Kruter Kotlhar ◽  
Marilise Oliveira Mesquita ◽  
Maria Alice Dias da Silva Lima ◽  
Sandra Mara Marin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Planning ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Health Care Planning ◽  
Porto Alegre ◽  
Publication Type ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
Common Structure ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
The World

AbstractAimTo describe the process adopted to identify, classify, and evaluate legacy of health care planning in the host city of Porto Alegre for the Football World Cup 2014.BackgroundThere is an emerging interest in the need to demonstrate a sustainable health legacy from mass gatherings investments. Leaving a public health legacy for future host cities and countries is now an important part of planning for these events.ProcessThe Ministry of Sports initiated and coordinated the development of projects in the host cities to identify actions, projects, and constructions to be developed to prepare for the World Cup. In Porto Alegre, a common structure was developed by the coordinating team to instruct legacy identification, classification, and evaluation. This structure was based on international documentary analysis (including official reports, policy documents, and web-based resources) and direct communication with recognized experts in the field.Findings and InterpretationSixteen total legacies were identified for health surveillance (5) and health services (11). They were classified according to the strategic area, organizations involved, dimension, typology, planned or unplanned, tangible or intangible, territorial coverage, and situation prior to the World Cup. Possible impacts were then assessed as positive, negative, and potentiating, and mitigating actions were indicated.ConclusionsThe project allowed the identification, classification, and development of health legacy, including risk analysis, surveillance, mitigation measures, and provision of emergency medical care. Although the project intended the development of indicators to measure the identified legacies, evaluation was not possible at the time of publication due to time.WittRR, KotlharMK, MesquitaMO, LimaMADS, MarinSM, DayCB, BandeiraAG, HuttonA. Developing legacy: health planning in the host city of Porto Alegre for the 2014 Football World Cup. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2015;30(6):613–617.

scholarly journals Exploring challenges of health system preparedness for communicable diseases in Arbaeen mass gathering: a qualitative study

F1000Research ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arezou Karampourian ◽  
Zohreh Ghomian ◽  
Davoud Khorasani-Zavareh
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Health System ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
System Response ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
Contagious Diseases

Background: Infectious diseases are common problems in mass gatherings, especially when there is a lack of health system preparedness. Since Iran is one of the most important countries on the walking path of Arbaeen and has a vital role in providing health services to pilgrims, the experiences of health challenges by participants is of key importance. The aim of this study is to explore stakeholders’ experiences on the health system's preparedness and challenges, and to provide suggestions for preventing infectious diseases during the Arbaeen mass gathering. Methods: A qualitative research method was used with a conventional content analysis approach. The number of participants was 17, including 13 executive managers and 4 health policymakers who entered the study among participants. Semi-structured interviews were used to generate the data. Interviews were analyzed by means of content analysis after face-to-face interviews. Results: Data analysis resulted in the extraction of four main themes and 11 sub-themes. Health infrastructure defects in Iraq has three sub-themes (health abandonment in Iraq, the weaknesses in health culture and problems related to the health system); poor control of the causative factors of infectious diseases has three sub-themes (the underlying factors of the prevalence of contagious diseases, health system response to communicable diseases and ignoring the risks of the Arbaeen ceremony); the low perception of risk in pilgrims has three sub-themes (lack of awareness in pilgrims, fatalism in pilgrims and unhygienic belief in pilgrims); and the ineffectiveness of health education has two sub-themes (training shortage in the targeted group and educational content problems) that shows participant’s experiences of the health system's challenges for coping with infectious diseases during the Arbaeen ceremony. Conclusion: Pilgrim-based training, planning and controlling other challenges may change these threats to opportunities and improve the health of participants of the mass gathering of Arbaeen in the region.

scholarly journals Assessment of immunization coverage in district Srinagar of Kashmir

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 628
Author(s):  
Ambrine Ashraf ◽  
Sheema Samreen ◽  
S. M. Salim Khan ◽  
Inaamul Haq ◽  
Mariya Amin
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Vaccine Coverage ◽  
Immunization Coverage ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Cluster Sampling ◽  
The World ◽  
Birth Dose ◽  
The Individual

Background: Immunization is till now most safe, cost effective and powerful intervention that has decreased the burden of vaccine preventable infectious diseases all over the world. The aim of this study was to estimate the immunization coverage among children aged 12-23 months in district Srinagar of Jammu and Kashmir.Methods: The study sample included 30 clusters from district Srinagar selected as per the 30×7 cluster sampling method.Results: It was found that fully immunized children were 87.14% and 12.26% of children were partially immunized and none was unimmunized. Regarding the individual vaccine coverage, it was highest for OPV1 (99.52%) followed by BCG and OPV0 (99.05%) and lowest for Hepatitis birth dose (95.24%). The dropout was found highest (6.22%) for OPV1-OPV3 and lowest (1.47%) for LPV1 - measles/MCV (1.47%).Conclusions: The immunization of district Srinagar is above 85% and this gives a positive hope for better future to reach coverage of 100%. 

Development of a Mass-Gathering Medical Resource Matrix for a Developing World Scenario

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 547-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne P. Smith ◽  
Vernon Wessels ◽  
Diane Naicker ◽  
Elizabeth Leuenberger ◽  
Peter Fuhri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Presentation Rate ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
Medical Resource ◽  
World Cup ◽  
Medical Resources ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Patient Presentation

AbstractMass gatherings have a higher patient presentation rate than is found within the general population. Despite this fact, many mass gatherings are occurring without suitable medical coverage. South Africa has had no standard approach or model to determine the number of medical personnel needed to deploy to an event. The awarding of the FIFA (Federation International de Football Association) 2010 World Cup to South Africa has provided the impetus for the development of such a model. The model presented in this paper is based on existing recommendations that originate from the United Kingdom.This paper outlines the modifications that have been made to this model to ensure that adequate medical resources still are provided, albeit in a developing country where medical resources may not be as plentiful.

Organization of restrictive quarantine measures to prevent especially dangerous infections

2020 ◽  
pp. 6-11
Author(s):  
Petr Ilyin
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
International Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Former Ussr ◽  
Health Regulations

Especially dangerous infections (EDIs) belong to the conditionally labelled group of infectious diseases that pose an exceptional epidemic threat. They are highly contagious, rapidly spreading and capable of affecting wide sections of the population in the shortest possible time, they are characterized by the severity of clinical symptoms and high mortality rates. At the present stage, the term "especially dangerous infections" is used only in the territory of the countries of the former USSR, all over the world this concept is defined as "infectious diseases that pose an extreme threat to public health on an international scale." Over the entire history of human development, more people have died as a result of epidemics and pandemics than in all wars combined. The list of especially dangerous infections and measures to prevent their spread were fixed in the International Health Regulations (IHR), adopted at the 22nd session of the WHO's World Health Assembly on July 26, 1969. In 1970, at the 23rd session of the WHO's Assembly, typhus and relapsing fever were excluded from the list of quarantine infections. As amended in 1981, the list included only three diseases represented by plague, cholera and anthrax. However, now annual additions of new infections endemic to different parts of the earth to this list take place. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already included more than 100 diseases in the list of especially dangerous infections.

1+1 > 2: Integration of the Host-directed Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Virus-targeted Modern Medicine in Control of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-94
Author(s):  
Jianjun Sun
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Medicine ◽  
Traditional Chinese Medicine ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
The World ◽  
Plausible Mechanism

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of infections and hundreds of thousands deaths in the world. The pandemic is still ongoing and no specific antivirals have been found to control COVID-19. The integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine with supportive measures of Modern Medicine has reportedly played an important role in the control of COVID-19 in China. This review summarizes the evidence of TCM in the treatment of COVID-19 and discusses the plausible mechanism of TCM in control of COVID-19 and other viral infectious diseases.

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