Australia on watch for illness among Hajj pilgrims

A report from Radio Australia highlight the ongoing need to be watchful for acute respiratory infections developing among pilgrims returning from Hajj.

Gregory Härtl (spokesperson, World Health Organisation) noted the need to keep an eye out... 

It could well be that a returning pilgrim gets back, starts feeling sick and is found to be diagnosed with MERS, and what we consequently are asking countries to do is to increase their surveillance and to know what symptoms to look for on the one hand, and for pilgrims to be on alert and to tell their doctors they were on Hajj if they start to feel sick.

Professor Charles Watson (Curtin University) noted that disease is most likely to be an issue when pilgrims return to their countries rather than while they were within the Kingdom of  Saudi Arabia.

Thanks to Crawford Kilian for bringing this report to my attention via Twitter and on his blog.