Each year, an estimated 50 million travelers from Western countries visit tropical regions all over the world.
Given the potentially serious consequences for the patients and, their close contacts and healthcare workers it is important that life threatening tropical diseases are swiftly diagnosed.
Pertinent Study Design and Conclusions:
- Descriptive analysis of acute and potentially life threatening tropical diseases among 82,825 ill western travelers reported to GeoSentinel from June of 1996 to August of 2011.
- Of these travelers, 3,655 (4.4%) patients had an acute and potentially life threatening disease.
- The four most common conditions being falciparum malaria (76.9%), typhoid fever (11.7%), paratyphoid fever (6.4%), and leptospirosis (2.4%).
Bottom Line:
Western physicians seeing febrile and recently returned travelers from the tropics need to consider a wide profile of potentially life threatening tropical illnesses, with a specific focus on the most likely diseases described in this case series.
University of Maryland Section of Global Emergency Health
Author: Walid Hammad, MB ChB
References
Jensenius M, Han PV, Schlagenhauf P, Schwartz E, Parola P, Castelli F, von Sonnenburg F, Loutan L, Leder K, Freedman DO; GeoSentinel Surveillance Network. Acute and potentially life-threatening tropical diseases in western travelers—a GeoSentinel multicenter study, 1996-2011. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2013 Feb; 88(2):397-404
