Public health implications at the world's largest mass gathering: The 2013 Kumbh Mela

Abstract

The 2013 Kumbh Mela in India was attended by over 100 million visitors over a 55 day period. A team of public health researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, in collaboration with local governmental and educational institutions, successfully piloted a real-time disease surveillance system tracking over 50,000 patient visits in a period of 3 weeks. This session will discuss the public health threats at the Mela and the context-specific, indigenous measures adopted by the government to combat disease outbreak, promote water safety and sanitation, and mitigate the risk of stampedes.