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. 2018 Sep;19(5):236-239.
doi: 10.1177/1757177418765634. Epub 2018 May 19.

Screening for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus among febrile Indonesian Hajj pilgrims: A study on 28,197 returning pilgrims

M Amin  1 , A Bakhtiar  1 , M Subarjo  1 , E B Aksono  2 , P Widiyanti  3 , K Shimizu  4 , Y Mori  4
Affiliations

Screening for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus among febrile Indonesian Hajj pilgrims: A study on 28,197 returning pilgrims

M Amin et al. J Infect Prev. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

There were 211,000 Indonesian Hajj pilgrims going to Mecca through 11 main airports in 2015 who were at risk of contracting the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). We aimed to find out whether there was any occurrence of MERS-CoV by performing screening on 28,197 returning pilgrims. Those with a body temperature of > 38 °C and respiratory symptoms were sent to the airport clinic to have an oropharyngeal swab and a bacterial culture. Fifteen pilgrims had fever (> 38 °C) accompanied by respiratory symptoms; of these, 12 patients were diagnosed with upper and lower respiratory tract infections and three patients with pneumonia. However, none of them were found to be infected with MERS-CoV. The bacterial cultures showed evidence of normal flora growth.

Keywords: Indonesia; MERS-CoV; pilgrims; screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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