Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus infections in British Hajj pilgrims

Rashid, Harunor; Shafi, Shuja; Booy, Robert; Bashir, Haitham El; Ali, Kamal; Zambon, M; Memish, ZA; Ellis, Joanna; Coen, Pietro G.; Haworth, Elizabeth

doi:10.3134/ehtj.08.002

Cited by 38 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In these studies, vaccine uptake was higher among individuals considered 'at risk' of developing severe complications from influenza infection, including pilgrims aged over 65 years and those with pre-existing chronic diseases [19,31,45,47]. In two Australian surveys, vaccine uptake was higher among females not considered at risk compared to males not considered at risk in 2011, but not in 2012 [19].…”

Section: Factors Affecting Influenza Vaccine Uptakementioning

confidence: 95%

“…The gender distribution was similar in most studies except in eight studies where the majority of respondents were male [11,13,31,33,34,40,43,49]. The included studies are summarised in Appendix 1.…”

Section: Summary Of Included Studiesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Of these, 17 studies reported on influenza vaccine uptake [9,[11][12][13]15,[17][18][19][20][26][27][28]35,45,[47][48][49], with the remaining 17 studies additionally assessing influenza vaccine effectiveness [10,14,16,[21][22][23][24][25][29][30][31][32][33][34]36,44,46].…”

Section: Influenza Vaccinementioning

confidence: 99%

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Vaccinations against respiratory tract infections at Hajj

Alqahtani

Rashid

Heywood

2015

Clinical Microbiology and Infection

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The transmission of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) is very high among the Hajj congregation in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Despite recommendations for vaccinations, pilgrims remain at increased risk of RTIs. In this paper we systematically reviewed available studies assessing the uptake and effectiveness of vaccinations against RTIs among Hajj pilgrims and enumerated important demographic factors, if described, associated with vaccine uptake. Of the 42 included studies, 29 reported on the uptake and effectiveness of influenza vaccine among pilgrims, eight studies reported the uptake of other vaccines, notably pneumococcal, diphtheria and bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccines, and the remaining five studies described both influenza and non-influenza vaccines. The uptake of seasonal influenza vaccine ranged from 0.7% to 100% across the study populations, with coverage highest in the elderly and those with pre-existing co-morbidities. The effectiveness of influenza vaccine was variable across studies but was significantly effective against laboratory-confirmed influenza (risk ratio 0.56; 95% CI 0.41-0.75; p <0.001) in pooled metadata from six studies. Uptake of diphtheria and pneumococcal vaccines was low, and the only study reporting pertussis among Hajj pilgrims found the presence of pre-Hajj immunity to be significantly protective against disease. Despite favourable evidence of effectiveness, our review shows variable uptake of vaccines across a number of studies with few data available on the uptake of non-influenza vaccines. Mixed-method studies are needed to gauge knowledge, attitudes and practices of Hajj pilgrims regarding vaccination, and randomized controlled trials are required to confirm the efficacy of vaccines and improve uptake in this vulnerable travelling population.

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Section: Factors Affecting Influenza Vaccine Uptakementioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Summary Of Included Studiesmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Vaccinations against respiratory tract infections at Hajj

Alqahtani

Rashid

Heywood

2015

Clinical Microbiology and Infection

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“…5,6 In summary, of the total 282 swabs tested at the bedside, 9 (3%) were positive for influenza by the QuickVue test. Subsequent testing by RT-PCR on lysis buffer samples, however, showed that 30 patients (11%) had influenza: 22 (73%) influenza A H3, 7 (23%) influenza B, and 1 (3%) influenza A H1.…”

Section: Details Of Ethical Background (Ethics Committee Ref Nomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5 This study was done as part of enhanced surveillance of influenza and other respiratory viruses among Muslim Hajj pilgrims from the United Kingdom during the Hajj 2005. After obtaining informed consent, 2 nasal swabs were collected from each patient with symptoms of respiratory tract infections who attended or had returned from the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.…”

Section: Details Of Ethical Background (Ethics Committee Ref Nomentioning

confidence: 99%

Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction on QuickVue Influenza Test Strips

Rashid¹,

Haworth²,

Ellis³

et al. 2009

Point of Care: The Journal of Near-Patient Testing &Amp; Technology

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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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Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus infections in British Hajj pilgrims

Cited by 38 publications

References 14 publications

Vaccinations against respiratory tract infections at Hajj

Vaccinations against respiratory tract infections at Hajj

Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction on QuickVue Influenza Test Strips

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

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