Abstract
Hajj, the Pilgrimage to the Holy City of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, is one of the largest mass gatherings in the world. Due to overcrowding, there is a risk of the transmission of infectious diseases from person to person, especially the risk of respiratory diseases. Since the emergence of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, there was a significant interest in the risk that this posed to the Hajj. So far, there had been systematic surveillance of the virus among returning pilgrims and no cases were identified in relation to the Hajj. However, there were two reported MERS-CoV cases related to the mini-Hajj, Umrah, in May 2014. Continued surveillance and vigilance are required to monitor and evaluate the risk in the future.
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Al-Tawfiq, J.A., Malik, M.R., Memish, Z.A. (2021). Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Hajj Gatherings. In: Laher, I. (eds) Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36811-1_49
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