MECCA, Saudi Arabia — The annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage to Mecca wound up on Sunday without the feared mass outbreak of swine flu, Saudi authorities said, reporting a total of five deaths and 73 proven cases.
Five pilgrims died from the A(H1N1) flu virus during the hajj, Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah said, as around 2.3 million pilgrims began an exodus from Mecca, the home in western Saudi Arabia of Islam's holiest site.
Rabeeah said there had been no other serious health problems.
"It gives me pleasure to announce ... that the hajj of 2009 was free from any outbreak of disease or epidemic," the minister said, quoted by the official Saudi news agency SPA.
Working with international health authorities, Saudi Arabia mounted a concerted campaign to minimise the threat and mobilised 20,000 health workers for the hajj.
Countries were warned not to send children, the elderly or those with existing medical conditions on the annual pilgrimage.
Also, vaccines were rushed to health workers when they became available at the start of November and heat-sensing cameras were set up at airports and around the main hajj sites to detect anyone with a feverish body temperature.
The dead were four elderly pilgrims, all over 70, from India, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan, and a 17-year-old Nigerian woman.
All of them had other ailments, including heart disease and cancer, which left them more vulnerable to swine flu, health officials said.
The world's largest annual pilgrimage went off nearly trouble-free, Saudi officials said, compared to previous years when the hajj was marred by deadly stampedes and clashes with Iranian pilgrims.
The massive crowds of pilgrims were also able to move about easily, thanks in part to a huge five-storey walkway designed to avoid crushes at the jamarat pillars in Mina, where pilgrims undertake the ritual of stoning the devil.
The site was the scene of several panics in past years that left hundreds dead.
Worries over a possible contentious political protest by Iranians also came to nought.
Ahead of the hajj, Saudi authorities warned against political activity, but they did not interfere on Thursday when Iranian pilgrims chanted "Death to America and Israel" in a ritual-like action inside a large tent in Mina.
As pilgrims began their mass exodus from Mecca, there was concern for those leaving from the coastal hub of Jeddah where a downpour on Wednesday that sparked deadly flash floods has killed more than 100 people.
Roads and bridges in some part of Jeddah -- the main gateway to Mecca -- were swept away by the floods.
More than a million of the pilgrims are expected to depart through Jeddah's airport and seaport, but roads are still not completely clear in the city.
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