The Most Prevalent Injuries at Different Types of Mass Gathering Events: An Analysis of More Than 150,000 Patient Encounters

Abstract

Background: The Belgian Red Cross provides first aid at 50 events with an attendance of more than 10,000 people every year. Since 2006, every patient encounter gets logged in a database called MedTRIS. The MedTRIS database contains more than 150,000 patient encounters. Methods: The triage category of a patient is recorded upon entering the first aid post. Four categories are used: without treatment, first aid, medical condition and medical emergency. A "medical emergency" requires immediate attention of a physician, a "medical condition/case" can wait. Other patient's characteristics, such as type of injury and type of event, are also recorded. All recorded information was coded for analysis in SPSS©. Results: 162.611 patient encounters are recorded in the MedTRIS database. 16.989 (10,5%) patients needed medical attention. 1080 (0,8% of total patient encounters) of these patients presented as a medical emergency. In the "medical condition/case" triage category the most prevalent type of injury was of the miscellaneous kind. This category represents-among others-urological and gynecological problems, eye abrasions and patients with chronic conditions. It is worth noting that some of the patients in the miscellaneous category probably belong in one of the other, more specific categories. Other types of injuries such as skin lesions, traumas and intoxications were roughly equally represented. However, in the "medical emergency" category, intoxications were more than three times as common as other type of injuries. Conclusion: True medical emergencies remain infrequent. An on-site physician needs to be capable to treat a multitude of different conditions. However, it is important to note that a medical emergency often concerns an intoxicated patient. Therefore, extra training in this specific type of injury is advisable.

Syndromic surveillance system during mass gathering of Panchkroshi Yatra festival, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India

“…Tablet-based surveillance during the yatra indicated that injury was the most commonly self-reported health problem. Our study findings are consistent with previous studies [ 34 ].…”

A Review of the Condition of OPD Patients in Arba’een On-foot Pilgrimage in 2019

“…Skin lesions were considered other common causes of the disease, which were reported in a study by Scholliers (2017) (23) as the most common disease in mass gatherings. Infectious and contagious diseases have been reported in a human stampede in India (Kumbh Mela).…”

Validation of a Belgian Prediction Model for Patient Encounters at Music Mass Gatherings

“…While life-threatening emergencies are unusual at MGs, health care providers can be confronted with anything from self-treatment issues to cardiorespiratory arrest. 3 In addition to common medical problems, mass-casualty incidents do occur at MGs and should be taken into account in the planning phase of an MG. 4 Research concerning MGs comes with ample problems, and although MGs have been the subject of some decades of research, clear definitions of concepts and definitions are still lacking. 5 One of the persisting problems in the risk assessment of MGs is the absence of a valid predictive model of patient presentation rates (PPRs).…”