Global Center for Mass Gatherings Medicine (WHO Collaborating Center for Mass Gatherings Medicine) Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Emergency Medicine Department, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
East Mediterr Health J. 2020 Dec 9;26(12):1570-1575. doi: 10.26719/emhj.20.129.
During the 2019 Hajj, the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia implemented for the first time a health early warning system for rapid detection and response to health threats.
This study aimed to describe the early warning findings at the Hajj to highlight the pattern of health risks and the potential benefits of the disease surveillance system.
Using syndromic surveillance and event-based surveillance data, the health early warning system generated automated alarms for public health events, triggered alerts for rapid epidemiological investigations and facilitated the monitoring of health events.
During the deployment period (4 July-31 August 2019), a total of 121 automated alarms were generated, of which 2 events (heat-related illnesses and injuries/trauma) were confirmed by the response teams.
The surveillance system potentially improved the timeliness and situational awareness for health events, including non-infectious threats. In the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, a health early warning system could enhance case detection and facilitate monitoring of the disease geographical spread and the effectiveness of control measures.
在 2019 年的朝觐期间，沙特阿拉伯卫生部首次实施了一项卫生预警系统，以快速检测和应对健康威胁。
本研究旨在描述朝觐期间的早期预警发现，以突出健康风险的模式和疾病监测系统的潜在效益。
利用症状监测和基于事件的监测数据，卫生预警系统为公共卫生事件生成自动警报，为快速流行病学调查触发警报，并有助于监测健康事件。
在部署期间（2019 年 7 月 4 日至 8 月 31 日），共生成了 121 个自动警报，其中 2 个事件（与热有关的疾病和伤害/创伤）被应对小组确认。
监测系统有可能提高对健康事件（包括非传染性威胁）的及时性和态势感知。在当前 COVID-19 大流行的背景下，卫生预警系统可以增强病例检测，并有助于监测疾病的地理传播和控制措施的有效性。
