Thai Hajj pilgrims free from Middle East Respiratory Syndromes–Corona Virus (MERS–CoV)

Abstract

Background: Thai Hajj pilgrims attend the Hajj rituals in Mecca, Saudi Arabia approximately 12,000 people per year. The Ministry of Public Health, Thailand has implemented the “Health empowers Hajj Scheme” policy in order to gather information that can be used to improve health care services provided to Thai Hajj pilgrims. This study aims to demonstrate health care information for Haj pilgrims to reduce the morbidity and the risk of death while pilgrimage. The operations have been conducted before, during and after pilgrimage in order to create a mechanism for pilgrims to know the risks, develop the Haj pilgrim database and issue the personal health book. This information has a benefit for Hajj pilgrims to get diagnosed and treated more quickly and accurately. It also helps to assess the risk of contracting Middle East Respiratory disease after returning from Hajj.
Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in all Thai pilgrims who traveling to Hajj during 2015– 2017. The data collection and descriptive statistics has been used in this study.
Results: During the year 2015–2017, there were the complete operations as follows: 1) Before traveling, all Haj pilgrims have to perform a health checkup. The health risk assessment was divided into normal health condition (green), moderate risk (yellow), and high risk (red). The age of the Haj pilgrims was ranging from 41–70 years–old. The percentage of health conditions was classified as green 54.55 (5,631 cases), 48.12 (4,605 cases), 46.31 (4,073 cases); yellow 27.20 (2,808 cases), 26.36 (2,522 cases), 26.71 (2,349 cases) and red 6.87 (709 cases), 8.21 (786 cases), 7.36 (647 cases) respectively and 2) During the Hajj rituals, there is a Thai Hajj Medical Office to provide a medical care. It was found that Thai Haj pilgrim patients mostly diagnosed with upper respiratory infection or Pharyngitis, followed by myalgia. The cause of death for the Thai Haj pilgrims was heart disease. 3) After returning back, there is a surveillance system to monitor the important communicable diseases. There were no any Thai Haj pilgrims suffering from the Middle East Respiratory disease.
Recommendations: Therefore, Health Empower Hajj is an important policy to prevent emerging infectious diseases and comply with the International Health Regulations 2005 for pilgrims.