LETTER TO EDITOR

Dear Editor
The Arbaeen pilgrimage is one of the biggest pilgrimages in 
the world. Its size is twice as the size of hajj pilgrimage  
in Mecca.  Arbaeen visitors are estimated at 15–17 millions, 
in which 2–3 million of them are non-Iraqis migrated from 
22 nations and 5 continents. This event takes almost  
10 days to travel on  feet from different Iraqi provinces to  
Kerbala with the  distance from minimum 50 to maximum 
300 miles.1

There are many problems that may threaten the national 
and global health due to many communicable and infectious 
diseases happened during this pilgrimage. The first noted 
infectious diseases are food-borne illness and dermatological 
diseases due to sharing rest places (population rest stations), 
such as gal, gastrointestinal disease, and the most common is 
respiratory infections like  influenza.2

The number of visitors increasing each year, long distance 
of the pilgrim, low sanitation, and the weakness of Iraqi health 
care system worsen the problem.3,4

The Iraqi ministry of health in collaboration with Iraqi 
Red Crescent, health care NGOs, and health professions as 
volunteers provide primary health care and treatments by 
placing health stations and mobile hospitals on the visitors’ 
way, but these stations do not cover the whole needs.

Ammar N.H. Albujeera,b,c, Alya Almahafdhad
aNab’a Al-Hayat Foundation for Medical Sciences and Health Care, Najaf, Iraq.
bDepartment of Community Oral Health, School of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
cSchool of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
dSchool of Medicine, International Campus, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Correspondence to Ammar N.H. Albujeer (email: ammar.dent@yahoo.com).
(Submitted: 02 April 2018 – Revised version received: 25 March 2018 – Accepted: 04 April 2018 – Published online: 26 June 2018)

This event may lead to epidemics if not well organized and 
supported by WHO and another global health organizations in 
addition to ministries of health of visitors’ countries through pro-
viding obvious plans and health programs. As well as, by training 
and educating people about hygiene especially those who provide 
food and rest places for visitors. Although things mentioned 
above as preventive methods are important, the most critical 
point is what can be done through media by increasing the aware-
ness about these disease using native languages of the visitors5.

conflicts of Interest
Authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

References 
1. Sim D. Arbaeen. World’s largest annual pilgrimage as millions of Shia 

Muslims gather in Karbala. International Business Times. 2016.
2. Abubakar I, Gautret P, Brunette GW, Blumberg L, Johnson D, Poumerol G,  

et al. Global perspectives for prevention of infectious diseases associated 
with mass gatherings. The Lancet Infect Dis. 2012;12:66–74.

3. Webster PC. lraq’s health system yet to heal from ravages of war. The Lancet. 
2011;378:863–866.

4. Allawi J. Allocating Resources in Health Care Services. J. Contem Med Sci. 
2017;3:237–238.

5. Field V, Gautret P, Schlagenhauf P, Burchard GD, Caumes E, Jensenius M,  
et al. Travel and migration associated infectious diseases morbidity in 
Europe, 2008. BMC Infect Dis. 2010;10:330.

Does Arbaeen event is taking its place in global mass gathering programs?

Journal of Contemporary Medical Sciences