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Mass-gathering Events: The Public Health Challenge of the Kumbh Mela 2013

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2015

Suresh Dwivedi  and
Mudera P. Cariappa Open the ORCID record for Mudera P. Cariappa [Opens in a new window]
Suresh Dwivedi
Affiliation:
Directorate of Health Services, Public Health Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Mudera P. Cariappa*
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India
*
Correspondence: Mudera P. Cariappa, MD Department of Community Medicine Armed Forces Medical College Pune, Maharashtra, India – 411040 E-mail: mpcariappa@gmail.com
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Abstract

Mass-gathering (MG) events pose challenges to the most adept of public health practitioners in ensuring the health safety of the population. These MGs can be for sporting events, musical festivals, or more commonly, have religious undertones. The Kumbh Mela 2013 at Allahabad, India may have been the largest gathering of humanity in history with nearly 120 million pilgrims having thronged the venue. The scale of the event posed a challenge to the maintenance of public health security and safety. A snapshot of the experience of managing the hygiene and sanitation aspects of this mega event is presented herein, highlighting the importance of proactive public health planning and preparedness. There having been no outbreaks of disease is vindication of the steps undertaken in planning and preparedness, notwithstanding obvious limitations of insanitary behaviors and traditional beliefs of those attending the festival. The evident flaw on post-event analyses was the failure to cater adequately for environmental mopping-up operations after the festival. Besides, a system of real-time monitoring of disease and morbidity patterns, harnessing low cost technology alternatives, should be planned for at all such future events.

DwivediS, CariappaMP. Mass-gathering Events: The Public Health Challenge of the Kumbh Mela 2013. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2015;30(6):621–624.

Keywords

community health planningcrowdingmass-casualty incidentspublic health practicessanitation
Type
Case Reports
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 30 , Issue 6 , December 2015 , pp. 621 - 624
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2015 

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