JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Background:

Arbaeenia religious event is the largest Mass Gathering (MG) in Iraq and is attended by 8-14 million people annually. Outbreaks of communicable diseases are a significant risk during MGs due to overcrowding and contamination of food and water supply. Syndromic surveillance is often employed for rapid detection and control of disease outbreaks,

Objective:

Objective:

this study was conducted in order to describe communicable disease syndromes among mobile clinics attendees in Wassit governorate.

Methods:

Methods:

Forty mobile clinics were selected along the road to Karbala from Wassit governorates during the Arbaeenia MG, December 1-10, 2014 for a cross-sectional study on six communicable disease syndromes: acute watery diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, fever and cough, vomiting with or without diarrhea, fever and bleeding tendency, and fever and rash. Data on patients was collected, including age, sex and diagnosis from the mobile clinic registries and forms.

Results:

Results:

A total of 87,865 patients attended the clinics durig the study period, of which 3,999 (5%) had communicable disease syndromes. The average daily attendees were 8,786 patients for all clinics and 219 patients per clinic. Of the total patients attended the clinics, 2% had fever and cough, 1.3% had acute diarrhea, 1.2% presented with vomiting with/without diarrhea, <1% had bloody diarrhea. The distribution of the syndromes did not vary between the age groups and gender. Stool samples from 120 randomly selected acute watery diarrhea cases were all negative for Vibrio Cholera.

Conclusions:

Conclusions:

Syndromic surveillance was useful in determining the main CDs syndromes and their basic profile during MGs. Expansion of this surveillance to other governorates and the use of mobile technology can help in timely detection and response to CDs outbreaks and mitigate its impacts.