High prevalence of common respiratory viruses and no evidence of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in Hajj pilgrims returning to Ghana, 2013

Annan, Augustina; Owusu, Michael; Marfo, Kwadwo Sarfo; Larbi, Richard; Sarpong, Francisca Naana; Adu‐Sarkodie, Yaw; Amankwa, Joseph; Fiafemetsi, Samuel; Drosten, Christian; Owusu‐Dabo, Ellis; Eckerle, Isabella

doi:10.1111/tmi.12482

Cited by 64 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The high prevalence of ILI during pilgrimage and confirmed influenza virus on the pilgrims' return to Egypt suggests a continued need for influenza prevention strategies for Egyptian Hajj pilgrims. These findings are higher than those of prior surveys where influenza virus positivity was 1.3%‐7.8% among returning Hajj pilgrims regardless of clinical status . Differences between our results and those of other studies might be due to subtle differences in sociodemographic characteristics including age distribution and prior vaccination among those surveyed.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

Cross‐sectional survey and surveillance for influenza viruses and MERS‐CoV among Egyptian pilgrims returning from Hajj during 2012‐2015

Refaey

Amin

Roguski

et al. 2016

Influenza Resp Viruses

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BackgroundApproximately 80 000 Egyptians participate in Hajj pilgrimage annually. The purpose of this study was to estimate influenza virus and MERS‐CoV prevalence among Egyptian pilgrims returning from Hajj.StudyA cross‐sectional survey among 3 364 returning Egyptian pilgrims from 2012 to 2015 was conducted. Nasopharyngeal (NP) and oropharyngeal (OP) swabs were collected from all participants. Sputum specimens were collected from participants with respiratory symptoms and productive cough at the time of their interview. Specimens were tested for influenza viruses, and a convenience sample of NP/OP specimens was tested for MERS‐CoV. Thirty percent of participants met the case definition for influenza‐like illness (ILI), 14% tested positive for influenza viruses, and none tested positive for MERS‐CoV. Self‐reported influenza vaccination was 20%.ConclusionsHigh prevalence of reported ILI during pilgrimage and confirmed influenza virus on return from pilgrimage suggest a continued need for influenza prevention strategies for Egyptian Hajj pilgrims. An evaluation of the Ministry of Health and Population's current risk communication campaigns to increase influenza vaccine use among pilgrims may help identify strategies to improve vaccine coverage.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 95%

Cross‐sectional survey and surveillance for influenza viruses and MERS‐CoV among Egyptian pilgrims returning from Hajj during 2012‐2015

Refaey

Amin

Roguski

et al. 2016

Influenza Resp Viruses

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show abstract

“…Specifically, the several studies from Saudi Arabia, China, France, Egypt, India, Jordan, Ghana, Iran, and the UK have reported higher prevalence of flu (1.3%‐20.7%) among pilgrims compared with other viruses with flu A being more common (0.6%‐13.9%) than flu B (0.8%‐6.8%) . They also showed high rates of hAdvs (0.8%‐23.7%), hRVs (5.9%‐16.8%), non‐MERS hCoVs (0.4%‐12.8%), hPIVs (0.8%‐7.4%), hRSVs (0.2%‐7.4%), and EVs (2.0%) . In contrast, our current study showed flu A as the most predominant virus among symptomatic pilgrims in 2014 Hajj (27.8%) followed by non‐MERS hCoVs (25.7%), hRVs (16.5%), flu B (13.4%), EVs (5.2%), hAdvs (5.1%), hRSVs (4.1%), and hPIVs (2.1%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MERS‐CoV, influenza and other respiratory viruses among symptomatic pilgrims during 2014 Hajj season

Hashem

Alsubhi

Badroon

et al. 2019

Journal of Medical Virology

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More than two million Muslims visit Makkah, Saudi Arabia, annually to perform the religious rituals of Hajj where the risk of spreading respiratory infections is very common. The aim here was to screen symptomatic pilgrims for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS‐CoV) and other viral etiologies. Thus, 132 nasopharyngeal samples were collected from pilgrims presenting with acute respiratory symptoms at the healthcare facilities in the holy sites during the 5 days of the 2014 Hajj season. Samples were tested using real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reactions and microarray. Demographic data including age, sex, and country of origin were obtained for all participants. While we did not detect MERS‐CoV in any of the samples, several other viruses were detected in 50.8% of the cases. Among the detected viruses, 64.2% of the cases were due to a single‐virus infection and 35.8% were due to the coinfections with up to four viruses. The most common respiratory virus was influenza A, followed by non‐MERS human coronaviruses, rhinoviruses, and influenza B. Together, we found that it was not MERS‐CoV but other respiratory viruses that caused acute respiratory symptoms among pilgrims. The observed high prevalence of influenza viruses underscores the need for more effective surveillance during the Hajj and adoption of stringent vaccination requirements from all pilgrims.

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“…Barasheed et al cite two more studies on surveillance of MERS-CoV in returning Hajj pilgrims, both of which were published after the submission of our manuscript, thus highlighting the interest of MERS-CoV surveillance of Hajj pilgrims that is obviously perceived in the scientific community at the moment [1][2][3][4].…”

mentioning

confidence: 83%

Response to the letter to the editor: Barasheed et al., ‘No evidence of MERS‐CoV in Ghanaian Hajj pilgrims: cautious interpretation is needed’

Eckerle

Annan

Drosten

2015

Tropical Med Int Health

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High prevalence of common respiratory viruses and no evidence of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in Hajj pilgrims returning to Ghana, 2013

Cited by 64 publications

References 28 publications

Cross‐sectional survey and surveillance for influenza viruses and MERS‐CoV among Egyptian pilgrims returning from Hajj during 2012‐2015

Cross‐sectional survey and surveillance for influenza viruses and MERS‐CoV among Egyptian pilgrims returning from Hajj during 2012‐2015

MERS‐CoV, influenza and other respiratory viruses among symptomatic pilgrims during 2014 Hajj season

Response to the letter to the editor: Barasheed et al., ‘No evidence of MERS‐CoV in Ghanaian Hajj pilgrims: cautious interpretation is needed’

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