Travelers visiting friends and relatives (VFR) and imported infectious disease: travelers, immigrants or both? A comparative analysis.
Travel Med Infect Dis
; 12(1): 88-94, 2014.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23907026
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Immigrants are increasingly traveling back to their countries of origin to visit friends and relatives (VFRs). They account for an important proportion of all international travelers and have a high risk for certain travel-related infectious diseases.METHODS:
We describe the spectrum of infectious diseases diagnosed in a cohort of 351 VFRs and compare them with two previously published cohorts of immigrants and travelers attended at our centre.RESULTS:
The most frequent diagnoses observed among VFRs were typical travel-associated infections such as malaria (75 [21.4%]), traveler's diarrhea 17 [4.8%]), intestinal parasites (16 [4.6%]) and dengue (11 [3.1%]). Asymptomatic chronic infectious diseases, such as latent tuberculosis (56 [16%]), chronic viral hepatitis (18 [5.1%]) and filariasis (18 [5.1%]), probably acquired before migration, were also observed.CONCLUSIONS:
VFRs should thus be approached from two perspectives as concerns imported infectious diseases as travelers and as immigrants. Etiological studies focusing on the presenting complaint as well as systematic screening for other latent infectious diseases should be performed.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Viagem
/
Doenças Transmissíveis
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Emigrantes e Imigrantes
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
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Incidence_studies
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Observational_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
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Adult
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Child
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Humans
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Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2014
Tipo de documento:
Article