Plagues, Pestilences
and Diseases
15 January 2012 Last updated at 21:17 ET
London 2012: Mass gathering risks disease spreading
The Olympic Games will see an influx of people to London, from
around the world.
Mass gatherings, such as the London 2012 Olympics, can be a hotbed
of diseases from across the world, public health experts have
warned.
They say it can have consequences for the host nation and for
people when they return to their own countries.
There are also important issues to consider in handling large
numbers of people, they say.
A series of reports, in The Lancet Infectious Disease journal, has
been highlighting the risks.
The theory is that so many people, packed closely together,
increases the risk of diseases spreading.
Prof Ibrahim Abubakar, from the University of East Anglia, writes
that there are risks from diseases already in the host country and
from the home countries of the visitors.
He highlighted religious or music festivals and major sporting
events as mass gatherings which could have a public health risk,
such as an influenza outbreak during World Youth Day in 2008 in
Australia.
One report said increased air travel and the spread of diseases
could have "potentially serious implications to health, security,
and economic activity worldwide".
“The issue for us is to make sure the right system is in place to
respond” - Prof Brian McCloskey Health Protection Agency
Crowds
The reports also highlight the challenges of managing large
numbers of people and pointed to the stampede at the 2010 Love
Parade in Germany in which 21 people died and 500 were injured.
Saudi Arabia has to make careful preparations for the world's
largest annual mass gathering - the Hajj, with more than two
million pilgrims.
Prof Ziad Memish, from the country's Ministry of Health, said:
"Conventional concepts of disease and crowd control do not
adequately address the complexity of mass gatherings.
"Mass gatherings have been associated with death and destruction -
catastrophic stampedes, collapse of venues, crowd violence and
damage to political and commercial infrastructure."
Prof Brian McCloskey, who is in charge of the Health Protection
Agency's preparations for London 2012, told the BBC: "The history
of the Olympic Games suggests infection doesn't happen often.
"The issue for us is to make sure the right system is in place to
respond."
He has been improving the agency's disease surveillance to include
data straight from hospitals and walk-in centres, which he said
would "leave a legacy of probably the most comprehensive disease
surveillance system in the world".