Mass Gathering and Infectious Diseases

In the recent years, there had been an increased travel and increased gathering of people for various activities such as religious, sports, rites, musical, and other reasons. Thus, there is a need to develop a new discipline for mass gathering medicine. There are multiple definitions for mass gatherings (MGs). One definition states that MG is as an event attended by more than 1000 individuals, and another definition requires the attendance of 25,000 people. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines MG as any event that will gather enough people to strain the public health planning and response capacities of the host community, city, or country. MG requires careful planning and surveillance. One of the most widely used surveillance strategies for monitoring communicable diseases during MG is syndromic surveillance. This strategy has been shown to be effective in early recognition, leading to rapid intervention and prevention of large outbreaks related to the spread of infectious diseases.