Applied Microbiology

Background: Hajj and Umrah poses many health challenges and lead to a higher risk of acquiring and disseminating infectious diseases, as a result of mass gatherings and shared accommodation and air pollution. Nasal colonization by Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major contributing factor for pneumococcal disease that still is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

 

Aim: The aim of this study was to detect and evaluate S. pneumoniae in the nasopharyngeal carriage and the antibiotic susceptibility

patterns of S. pneumoniae isolates in different ethnic groups, during Umrah and Hajj seasons.

 

Methods: A total of 3184 nasal swab were collected from 979/613 Umrah visitors/pilgrims, swab from each one upon arrival and swab before leaving Saudi Arabia, during the period from March to November 2009. Samples were cultured for the presence of S. pneumonia by standard laboratory procedures in the Microbiology Research Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University.

 

Results: The carriage rate of S. pneumoniae was 0% before performing Umrah and 6.41% after performing Umrah and 80% from isolates after Umrah were sensitive to Cefotaxime, Ceftriaxone, Rifampicin and Meropenem antibiotics. The carriage rate of S. pneumoniae was 0.7% before performing Hajj and 1% after performing Hajj and 75% from isolates before Hajj and 66.7% after Hajj

were sensitive to the previous antibiotics.

 

Conclusion & Recommendations: This study revealed that ethnic groups carries S. pneumoniae were more after performing Hajj and Umrah than before Hajj and Umrah. Thus, we recommend to repeat this study after few years to evaluate the carriage rate of S. pneumoniae in Umrah visitors and pilgrims and adding controls from Saudi nationals to any upcoming study in order to comparethe carriage rate of S. pneumoniae in Umrah visitors, pilgrims and Saudi nationals for designing control strategies for these infectious

diseases during Umrah and Hajj seasons.