Cargando…

Acute respiratory tract infections among Hajj medical mission personnel, Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of acute respiratory tract infections (ARI) among 250 personnel serving in a Hajj medical mission, Al-Hada and Taif Armed Forces Hospitals, during the 2005 season and to determine the effectiveness of protective measures, including influenza vaccination, for th...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Al-Asmary, Saeed, Al-Shehri, Abdul-Salam, Abou-Zeid, Alaa, Abdel-Fattah, Moataz, Hifnawy, Tamer, El-Said, Tarek
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: International Society for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7110589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16905350
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2006.04.008
_version_ 1783513079522263040
author Al-Asmary, Saeed
Al-Shehri, Abdul-Salam
Abou-Zeid, Alaa
Abdel-Fattah, Moataz
Hifnawy, Tamer
El-Said, Tarek
author_facet Al-Asmary, Saeed
Al-Shehri, Abdul-Salam
Abou-Zeid, Alaa
Abdel-Fattah, Moataz
Hifnawy, Tamer
El-Said, Tarek
author_sort Al-Asmary, Saeed
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of acute respiratory tract infections (ARI) among 250 personnel serving in a Hajj medical mission, Al-Hada and Taif Armed Forces Hospitals, during the 2005 season and to determine the effectiveness of protective measures, including influenza vaccination, for these infections. METHODS: This was a nested case-control study. A questionnaire was distributed to the study cohort two weeks after the Hajj period and was self-administered by all recruited subjects. In addition, the medical records of study subjects were reviewed at Al-Hada Hospital for the same period in order to document ARI. RESULTS: The attack rate for ARI among study subjects during Hajj season or within two weeks of returning was 25.6% (64/250). Logistic regression analysis of factors related to acquiring ARI revealed that contact with pilgrims imposed an extremely high risk of infection (adjusted OR 13.2, 95% CI 1.5–117.6). Moreover, non-use of alcohol-based hand disinfection carried a more than 8-fold risk of acquiring ARI compared to those who always used alcohol for hand disinfection (adjusted OR 8.4, 95% CI 2.2–32.2). Smoking was also a predictor of ARI in our cohort and influenza vaccination was associated with a 30% reduction in ARI compared to unvaccinated subjects, although this finding was not statistically significant. Unexpectedly, the logistic regression model showed that Saudi nationals were three times more likely to acquire ARI than non-Saudis (adjusted OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.2–8.4). CONCLUSIONS: The common practice among pilgrims and medical personnel of using surgical facemasks to protect themselves against ARI should be discontinued and regular use of alcohol-based hand scrubs should be more vigorously encouraged. Further research is needed to evaluate the protective value of N95 facemasks against ARI during the Hajj period.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7110589
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2007
publisher International Society for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-71105892020-04-02 Acute respiratory tract infections among Hajj medical mission personnel, Saudi Arabia Al-Asmary, Saeed Al-Shehri, Abdul-Salam Abou-Zeid, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, Moataz Hifnawy, Tamer El-Said, Tarek Int J Infect Dis Article OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence of acute respiratory tract infections (ARI) among 250 personnel serving in a Hajj medical mission, Al-Hada and Taif Armed Forces Hospitals, during the 2005 season and to determine the effectiveness of protective measures, including influenza vaccination, for these infections. METHODS: This was a nested case-control study. A questionnaire was distributed to the study cohort two weeks after the Hajj period and was self-administered by all recruited subjects. In addition, the medical records of study subjects were reviewed at Al-Hada Hospital for the same period in order to document ARI. RESULTS: The attack rate for ARI among study subjects during Hajj season or within two weeks of returning was 25.6% (64/250). Logistic regression analysis of factors related to acquiring ARI revealed that contact with pilgrims imposed an extremely high risk of infection (adjusted OR 13.2, 95% CI 1.5–117.6). Moreover, non-use of alcohol-based hand disinfection carried a more than 8-fold risk of acquiring ARI compared to those who always used alcohol for hand disinfection (adjusted OR 8.4, 95% CI 2.2–32.2). Smoking was also a predictor of ARI in our cohort and influenza vaccination was associated with a 30% reduction in ARI compared to unvaccinated subjects, although this finding was not statistically significant. Unexpectedly, the logistic regression model showed that Saudi nationals were three times more likely to acquire ARI than non-Saudis (adjusted OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.2–8.4). CONCLUSIONS: The common practice among pilgrims and medical personnel of using surgical facemasks to protect themselves against ARI should be discontinued and regular use of alcohol-based hand scrubs should be more vigorously encouraged. Further research is needed to evaluate the protective value of N95 facemasks against ARI during the Hajj period. International Society for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 2007-05 2006-08-14 /pmc/articles/PMC7110589/ /pubmed/16905350 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2006.04.008 Text en Copyright © 2006 International Society for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Al-Asmary, Saeed
Al-Shehri, Abdul-Salam
Abou-Zeid, Alaa
Abdel-Fattah, Moataz
Hifnawy, Tamer
El-Said, Tarek
Acute respiratory tract infections among Hajj medical mission personnel, Saudi Arabia
title Acute respiratory tract infections among Hajj medical mission personnel, Saudi Arabia
title_full Acute respiratory tract infections among Hajj medical mission personnel, Saudi Arabia
title_fullStr Acute respiratory tract infections among Hajj medical mission personnel, Saudi Arabia
title_full_unstemmed Acute respiratory tract infections among Hajj medical mission personnel, Saudi Arabia
title_short Acute respiratory tract infections among Hajj medical mission personnel, Saudi Arabia
title_sort acute respiratory tract infections among hajj medical mission personnel, saudi arabia
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7110589/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16905350
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2006.04.008
work_keys_str_mv AT alasmarysaeed acuterespiratorytractinfectionsamonghajjmedicalmissionpersonnelsaudiarabia
AT alshehriabdulsalam acuterespiratorytractinfectionsamonghajjmedicalmissionpersonnelsaudiarabia
AT abouzeidalaa acuterespiratorytractinfectionsamonghajjmedicalmissionpersonnelsaudiarabia
AT abdelfattahmoataz acuterespiratorytractinfectionsamonghajjmedicalmissionpersonnelsaudiarabia
AT hifnawytamer acuterespiratorytractinfectionsamonghajjmedicalmissionpersonnelsaudiarabia
AT elsaidtarek acuterespiratorytractinfectionsamonghajjmedicalmissionpersonnelsaudiarabia