20 July 2026 : Clinical Research
Nasopharyngeal Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis in 181 Hajj and Umrah Pilgrims in Türkiye: Pre- and Post-Travel Prevalence and Serogroup Distribution n
Yasemin Saglan
ABCEF 1*, Ugur Bilge ABF 1, Ramazan Saglan BCF 2, Omer Kılıc AE 3, Meltem Dinleyici DEF 3, Huseyin Balcıoglu AF 1, Ener Cagrı Dinleyici ACDEFG 3
DOI: 10.12659/MSM.952640
Med Sci Monit 2026; 32:e952640
Figure 1 Comparison of meningococcal nasopharyngeal carriage rates before and after travel to Saudi Arabia among Hajj and Umrah participants. Blue bars represent pre-travel carriage rates and dark blue bars represent post-travel carriage rates for the total group (N=181), Hajj participants (n=112), and Umrah participants (n=69). Carriage rates increased significantly in the overall cohort (8.2% vs 14.4%; McNemar χ2=9.76; P=0.002) and among Hajj participants (9.8% vs 18.7%; McNemar χ2=9.97; P=0.002), whereas no statistically significant change was observed among Umrah participants (5.7% vs 7.2%; P=0.48). P values were calculated using the McNemar test for paired proportions.