Department of Emergency Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Emergency Medicine, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Travel Med Infect Dis. 2017 Jan-Feb;15:67-70. doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2016.09.002. Epub 2016 Sep 14.
Mass gatherings present enormous challenges for emergency preparedness. Planners must anticipate and prepare for communicable and non-communicable disease outbreaks, illnesses, and injuries to participants, crowd control, and disaster responses to unforeseen natural or man-made threats. The Hajj, the largest annually recurring mass gathering event on earth. It attracts about 3 million pilgrims from over 180 countries who assemble in Mecca over a 1-week period.
A literature review was conducted using Medline and OVID, while searching for published data concerning human stampedes and crowd control measures implemented to prevent human stampedes. The review was further extended to include media reports and published numbers and reports about Hajj from the Saudi Arabian government, in both the English and Arabic languages.
Because millions of pilgrims undertake their religious ritual within strict constraints in term of space and time; this rigour and strictness have led to a series of large crowd disasters over several years, thus putting pressure on the authorities. In the past few years, the government of Saudi Arabia have put an enormous effort to solve this difficulty using state of the art innovative scientific means. The use of crowd simulation models, assessment of the best ways of grouping and scheduling pilgrims, crowd management and control engineering technologies, luggage management, video monitoring, and changes in the construction of the transport system for the event.
A large gathering such as the Hajj still holds an increasing risk for future disasters. International collaboration and continued vigilance in planning efforts remains an integral part of these annual preparations. The development of educational campaigns for pilgrims regarding the possible dangers is also crucial. Lessons gleaned from experiences at the Hajj may influence planning for mass gatherings of any kind, worldwide.
大规模集会给应急准备带来了巨大挑战。规划者必须预测并准备应对参与者中的传染病和非传染性疾病爆发、疾病和伤害、人群控制以及对不可预见的自然或人为威胁的灾害反应。朝觐是地球上每年最大的周期性大规模集会活动。它吸引了来自 180 多个国家的约 300 万朝圣者，他们在麦加聚集一周。
使用 Medline 和 OVID 进行文献回顾，同时搜索有关人类踩踏和实施人群控制措施以防止踩踏事件的已发表数据。审查进一步扩展到包括媒体报道以及沙特阿拉伯政府以英语和阿拉伯语发布的朝觐数字和报告。
由于数以百万计的朝圣者在空间和时间上严格限制的条件下进行宗教仪式；这种严格性导致了多年来发生了一系列大型人群灾难，从而给当局带来了压力。在过去的几年里，沙特阿拉伯政府投入了大量精力，利用最先进的创新科学手段来解决这个问题。使用人群模拟模型、评估最佳分组和安排朝圣者的方法、人群管理和控制工程技术、行李管理、视频监控以及活动交通系统的建设变化。
像朝觐这样的大型集会仍然存在未来灾难的风险增加。国际合作和持续关注规划工作仍然是这些年度准备工作的重要组成部分。为朝圣者开展有关潜在危险的教育活动也至关重要。从朝觐中吸取的经验教训可能会影响全球任何类型的大规模集会的规划。
