Experience of public health risk prevention and control in international mass gatherings and its enlightenment to Beijing Winter Olympic Games

With the development of global economy and transportation, there are more and more international guests participate in mass gatherings. During the assemblies, the gathering of people is likely to lead to dangerous situations such as disease transmission, stampede and terrorist attacks, thus their health and personal safety are under threatening; the gatherings could also increase the pressure of the medical and health system in the host area; so mass gatherings are more and more concerned by international communities. Olympic Games, world championships and other sports events are typical large gatherings. Effective prevention and control of public health risks is the key to the success of all these sports mass gatherings. Based on the English literature retrived, we summarizes and combs the experience of prevention and control of public health risks in international sports mass gatherings, and makes positive comments from the following aspects: attaching importance to the identification of public health risks before competitions, strengthening the cooperation and contact between countries and international organizations, closely tracking the public health status and collecting data in time, paying attention to the application of scientific and technological means and the formation of health heritage. All of the procedures above would provide references for the preparation of public health risk prevention and control in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.