Influenza and RSV among returning travellers

Annually about 45,000 European Muslims attend the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. One in seven pilgrims with respiratory symptoms suffers from proven influenza and upwards of one in 25 from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (Rashid et al, 2008). To investigate whether travellers bring these infections back home we conducted a pilot survey on pilgrims with flulike illness who returned home after the Hajj 2005 by setting up clinics at two UK mosques. The East London and the Aylesbury mosques situated in London and in Buckinghamshire were chosen to represent dense and moderately dense Muslim populations respectively.