Background: Travelling to places where the population density is high often causes the transmission of infectious diseases; thus, not complying with hygiene standards can result in an increase in infectious diseases. The aim of the current study was to investigate contagious diseases and their related risk factors among the pilgrims admitted to Ilam’s educational and treatment centers on the day of Arbaeen in 2016.
Methods: The study population consisted of 105 patients. The research instrument was a checklist including two parts. The first part of the checklist included demographic information and the second part contained information about infectious diseases. For data analysis, the SPSS V. 19 software was used.
Results: The sample size consisted of 63 male patients and 42 female patients. The age groups extremely suffering from infectious diseases were the age groups of above 60 and under 20 years of age including 28 patients (26.7%). The disease associated with the highest mortality rate was acute gastroenteritis with severe dehydration, including 4 deaths. There were statistically significant relationships between the values of WBC, Urea, and Cr and the patients’ gender and age (P Value <0.05).
Conclusion: Identifying age groups more prone to such diseases (e.g., children and seniors), complying with hygiene standards, consuming healthy food, and using safe drinking-water can contribute to preventing the occurrence of a large number of infectious diseases. Moreover, it is recommended to hold training classes to have pilgrims learn about the symptoms of contagious diseases.

Keywords: Infectious diseases, Risk factors, Hospital, Arbaeen