TY - GEN
T1 - Disease Spread Simulation to Assess the Risk of Epidemics during the Global Mass Gathering of Hajj Pilgrimage
AU - Alshammari, Sultanah M.
AU - Gwalani, Harsha
AU - Helsing, Joseph E.
AU - Mikler, Armin R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 IEEE.
PY - 2019/12
Y1 - 2019/12
N2 - Global mass gatherings can pose a risk for communicable disease outbreaks. In these events, millions of people gather at a specific location over a specific period of time from different regions of the world. Such settings have the potential to import and/or export infectious diseases to and from the host countries by international participants. Planning and preparing for public health risks at global mass gatherings is a challenging and complex process. Advanced risk assessment tools are important to identify potential disease outbreaks. In this study, we propose a computational epidemic simulation framework to simulate disease transmission from the arrival, to the departure of international participants in the global event of Hajj. Computational simulations of disease spread in global mass gatherings provide public health authorities with powerful tools to assess the implications of these events and to evaluate the efficacy of prevention and control strategies to reduce their potential impacts.
AB - Global mass gatherings can pose a risk for communicable disease outbreaks. In these events, millions of people gather at a specific location over a specific period of time from different regions of the world. Such settings have the potential to import and/or export infectious diseases to and from the host countries by international participants. Planning and preparing for public health risks at global mass gatherings is a challenging and complex process. Advanced risk assessment tools are important to identify potential disease outbreaks. In this study, we propose a computational epidemic simulation framework to simulate disease transmission from the arrival, to the departure of international participants in the global event of Hajj. Computational simulations of disease spread in global mass gatherings provide public health authorities with powerful tools to assess the implications of these events and to evaluate the efficacy of prevention and control strategies to reduce their potential impacts.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081126254&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85081126254&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/WSC40007.2019.9004669
DO - 10.1109/WSC40007.2019.9004669
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85081126254
T3 - Proceedings - Winter Simulation Conference
SP - 215
EP - 226
BT - 2019 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2019
T2 - 2019 Winter Simulation Conference, WSC 2019
Y2 - 8 December 2019 through 11 December 2019
ER -