Religious Festivals and Influenza
Alice P.Y. Chiu, Qianying Lin, and Daihai He

TL;DR
This study investigates the correlation between influenza outbreaks and major religious festivals like Hanukkah and Hajj across several Middle Eastern countries, revealing consistent post-festival peaks in influenza activity.
Contribution
It provides empirical evidence linking religious festivals to influenza peaks, suggesting timing considerations for vaccination strategies based on festival dates.
Findings
Influenza peaks follow Hanukkah in Israel in most years.
Influenza peaks follow Hajj in six Middle Eastern countries annually.
Festival timing influences influenza outbreak patterns.
Abstract
Objectives Influenza outbreaks have been widely studied. However, the patterns between influenza and religious festivals remained unexplored. This study examined the patterns of influenza and Hanukkah in Israel, and that of influenza and Hajj in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Oman and Qatar. Method Influenza surveillance data of these seven countries from 2009 to 2017 were downloaded from the FluNet of the World Health Organization. Secondary data were collected for the countries' population, and the dates of Hajj and Hanukkah. We aggregated the weekly influenza A and B laboratory confirmations for each country over the study period. Weekly influenza A patterns and religious festival dates were further explored across the study period. Results We found that influenza A peaks closely followed Hanukkah in Israel in six out of seven years from 2010 to 2017. Aggregated influenza A peaks of…
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Taxonomy
TopicsInfluenza Virus Research Studies · Travel-related health issues · COVID-19 epidemiological studies
