ABSTRACT

Background/Purpose: Hajj and Umrah are one of the most significant and long-standing recurring religious mass gatherings events across the world. The mass gathering in Hajj and Umrah may provide potential environment for transmission of viral respiratory infections. Therefore, rising awareness of the Holy Mosque visitors could be helpful in reducing the risk of infections transmission.

Method: The study was aimed to assess the Holy Mosque visitors' knowledge and practice toward the spread and symptomatic victim of viral respiratory tract infections. A cross-sectional study was conducted on four hundred and forty-eight visitors of Holy Mosque between January and February 2020. The participants were interviewed for various virtual and practicing tools through different ranking scales, used to correlate with the spread of the said viral infection.

Results: The data revealed that most of the study respondents (62.6%) were visitors to Makkah and only 29.7% were residing in Makkah. Regarding awareness of the respondents, to know about the various routes of transmission, a total of 398 (82.7%), 372 (77.3%) and 294 (61.1%) got the information that respiratory viruses may be transmitted through sneezing, coughing and touching mouth and/or nose by contaminated hands. Approximately, 60.7% of the visitors considered that contaminated objects can transmit viral respiratory tract infections. Regarding various precautionary measures used to protect against spread of viral respiratory tract infections, only 53% of the participants used hand sanitizer after sneeze or cough and 43.9% wore a mask in the crowded places.

Conclusion: The Holy Mosque visitors had a good level of general knowledge about the viral respiratory infections and their transmission modes. However, there is lack of good practices among the visitors with regard to the viral respiratory tract infections.

Keywords: Umrah; Knowledge; Self-protection; Makkah; Viral respiratory infections