Background:
Every year more than 2 million people depart from Iran to Saudi Arabia for Hajj
ritual which can be faced with some different diseases. There are not much
information about frequencies and trend of diseases in Hajj. The main objective
of this study was to determine the trend of prevalent diseases during five
consecutive Hajj rituals among Iranian pilgrims.
Methods:
We established a specific surveillance system for all Iranian pilgrims who had
participated in Hajj from 2004 to 2008. We monitored the pilgrims’ health
status before departure, through their journey. The understudied diseases were
19 selected types of diseases in the Hajj. The occurrences of diseases were
recorded on a researchers-made questionnaire. We used chi-square test for analysis
with the alpha lower than 5% to reject the null hypothesis.
Results:
During 5 consecutive periods, a total of 254,823 of Iranian pilgrims were
monitored for more common diseases with this system. The most prevalent
diseases were as follows: at least one type of respiratory involvement (71.26%),
common cold like syndrome (47.15%), and musculoskeletal disorders (18.67%), The
frequency of respiratory involvement was lower in 2006 than other years (p
<0.001).There were statistically significant differences between the numbers
of hospitalization and patients who were referred back to Iran with the year of
Hajj (p <0.001).
Conclusion:
Health managers should be informed about trend and frequency of more prevalent
diseases in Hajj. Easy access to health information via such surveillance
system can be possible.
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