Mass Gathering

Mass gathering is defined by WHO as – “More than specified number of persons (which can be as few as 1000 persons to more than 25000) at a specific location for a specific purpose (social function, large public event or sports competition) for a defined period of time” . Mass gatherings are considered to have the potential for public health incidents, outbreaks and casualties attributed to the inevitable overcrowding in a place. Because populations are increasingly mobile, and more able to attend large gatherings, the risk for outbreaks of infectious diseases among a susceptible population has increased, and a substantial responsibility is placed on health services if outbreaks occur. Currently, there are no existing programmes of surveillance for mass gathering events in Wales. Although a variety of surveillance system exist, no systematic process is established to gather the information from important large events and collect into a common database for future reference and to study the impact. The number of people attending these gatherings in Wales range from few thousands to 250,000.

Objective

To identify the need of surveillance during mass gathering events in Wales by identifying a causal relationship between public health and characteristics of a mass gathering event grounded on risk assessment.

Champaign County is one of the largest counties in central Illinois with a population of ~207,000 and is home to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which currently has 44,500 students. In the fall the university hosts Big Ten football games which have recently been drawing an average attendance of ~45,000 people, many traveling from Chicago or other parts of the Midwest. The twin cities host a number of community events and festivals throughout the Spring and Summer. Typically the community festivals have liquor licenses whereas no alcohol is served in the football stadium. Despite the lack of alcohol availability in the stadium many fans drink during tailgate parties before and after the game.

Objective

The objective for this research project was to see if there are predictable patterns for certain annual events in Champaign County, Illinois. The focus was on how alcohol intoxication effected the population and whether or not its effects were dangerous to the community at an alarming rate.

Mass gatherings can result in morbidity and mortality from communicable and non-communicable diseases, injury, and bioterrorism. Therefore, it is important to identify event-related visits as opposed to community-related visits when conducting public health surveillance. Previous mass gatherings in Virginia have demonstrated the importance of implementing enhanced surveillance to facilitate early detection of public health issues to allow for timelyresponse. Between June 2015 and September 2015, VDH coordinated with two healthcare entities representing six acute care hospitals to conduct enhanced surveillance for the 2015 World Police and Fire Games and 2015 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) RoadWorld Championships. VDH established initial communicationwith each healthcare entity between 1 week to 2 months before theevent start date to discuss functional requirements with technical,informatics, and clinical staff.

Objective

To describe the planning strategies and lessons learned by theVirginia Department of Health (VDH) when conducting enhancedsurveillance during mass gathering events and coordinating withhealthcare entities to distinguish event-related emergency department(ED) visits from community-related ED visits

France hosted 2016 UEFA European Football Championship between June 10 and July 10. In the particular context of several terrorist attacks occurring in France in 2015 [1], the French national public health agency « Santé publique France » (formerly French Institute for Public Health Surveillance-InVS) was mandated by the Ministry of Health to reinforce health population surveillance systems during the UEFA 2016 period. Six French regions and 10 main stadiums hosted 51 matches and several official and nonofficial dedicated Fan Zones were implemented in many cities across national territory. Three types of hazard have been identified in this context: outbreak of contagious infectious disease, environmental exposure and terrorist attack. The objectives of health surveillance of this major sporting event were the same as for an exceptional event including mass gathering [2] : 1/ timely detection of a health event (infectious cluster, environmental pollution, collective foodborne disease…) to investigate and timely implement counter measures (control and prevention), 2/ health impact assessment of an unexpected event. The French national syndromic surveillance system SurSaUD® was one of the main tools for timely health impact assessment in the context of this event.

Objective

To describe the surveillance indicators implemented for the health impact assessment of a potential health event occurring before, during or after the UEFA Euro 2016 football matches in order to timely implement control and prevention measures.