Muslims asked to get flu shots

Saudi Arabia: Hajj pilgrims need flu shots
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People planning to make the Hajj pilgrimage should get flu shots
beforehand to reduce the risk of a global flu pandemic, say British
doctors. At the end of January 2007, 2 million Muslim pilgrims from
almost every country on earth will converge on Saudi Arabia to visit
Mecca, the final resting place of the Prophet Muhammad.

Although pilgrims see this as a deeply spiritual journey, Aziz
Sheikh, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, has issued
a warning that such a gathering makes the possibility of a global flu
pandemic much more likely. Overcrowding is common during the Hajj,
and Sheikh said epidemiologists think at least one in 3 pilgrims will
develop respiratory symptoms during their stay. That ratio increases
when pilgrims come from economically developing nations.

Since Saudi authorities already require that people entering the
country for the Hajj bring proof of immunization for meningitis,
Sheikh and his colleagues thought that adding flu shots to the
regimen would not be either inconvenient or unacceptable. They also
suggested tighter surveillance to identify newly emerging flu strains
while pilgrims are in the country and international cooperation
overseen by the World Health Organization to assemble the resources
and logistics that will protect the planet's health.

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