Religious gatherings are no strangers to infectious disease. Each year approximately 2 million Muslims make the haj pilgrimage to Mecca and, while detailed information is lacking, it would seem that possibly between 30 per cent and 40 per cent regularly contract influenza or some other infectious disease. The process by which infectious diseases emerge and diffuse is not simple. It requires a series of events to occur in concert. International travel plays an important role in transporting infections across time and space, allowing potentially pathogenic infections to be introduced into new environments. More than 1.5 billion people cross international borders by air every year in journeys that are considerably shorter than the incubation time of most infections. Remember SARS and bird flu? In an interconnected world we are all at risk. More
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