ArticleTravel medicine and infectious disease
Environmental investigation of respiratory pathogens during the Hajj 2016 and 2018.
Article in Travel medicine and infectious disease. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on inanimate surfaces: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Facemask against viral respiratory infections among Hajj pilgrims: A challenging cluster-randomized trial.PloS one · 2020Trial
- The trends of mortality, aetiologies and risk factors of lower respiratory infections in Saudi Arabia from 1990 to 2021: results from the global burden of disease study 2021.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Review
- Occurrence of Human Viruses on Fomites in the Environment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.ACS environmental Au · 2023Review
- Acquisition of multidrug-resistant bacteria and encoding genes among French pilgrims during the 2017 and 2018 Hajj.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2021Article
- Effectiveness of a Novel Smartphone Health Education Intervention in Enhancing Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices for the Prevention of Respiratory Tract Infections Among Private Hajj Pilgrims From Malaysia.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRespiratory tract infections are common in the context of the Hajj pilgrimage and respiratory pathogens can be transmitted via contact with contaminated surfaces. We sampled surfaces during the Hajj to detect the presence of respiratory bacteria and viruses.
methodsFrequently touched surfaces at Mecca, Mina, Arafat and Medina were sampled. The common respiratory pathogens were tested by qPCR.
results70/142 (49.3%) environmental samples collected were positive for at least one respiratory pathogen. Among the positive samples, Klebsiella pneumoniae was the bacterium most frequently tested positive (57.1%), followed by Streptococcus pneumoniae (12.9%), Staphylococcus aureus (10.0%) and Haemophilus influenzae (7.1%). 32.9% positive samples tested positive for rhinovirus and 1.4% for coronavirus. Surfaces with the highest rates of positive samples were kitchen tables (100%), water fountain faucet (73.3%) and edge of water coolers lid (84.6%). Samples collected in Mina were the most frequently contaminated with 68.8% being positive for at least one pathogen and 18.8% positive for a combination of multiple pathogens.
conclusionThese preliminary results indicate that respiratory pathogens are common in environmental surfaces from areas frequented by Hajj pilgrims. Further larger-scale studies are needed to better assess the possible role of environmental respiratory pathogens in respiratory infections in Hajj pilgrims.
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