• Donya Satarvandi, Suzanne Desirée van der Werff, Pontus Nauclér, Helena Hildenwall, and Klara Sondén.
• Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden donya.satarvandi@ki.se.
• Emerg Med J. 2024 Mar 21; 41 (4): 242248242-248.

BackgroundFever is a common symptom among travellers returning from tropical/subtropical areas to Europe, and promptly distinguishing severe illnesses from self-limiting febrile syndromes is important but can be challenging due to non-specific clinical presentation.MethodsA cross-sectional study enrolled adults and children who sought care during 2015-2020 at Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden with fever within 2 months after returning from travel to a tropical/subtropical area. Data on symptoms and laboratory parameters were prospectively and retrospectively collected. Two separate scoring systems for malaria and dengue were developed based on backward elimination regressions.ResultsIn total, 2113 adults (18-94 years) and 202 children (1-17 years) were included, with 112 (4.8%) confirmed malaria by blood thick smear and 90 (3.9%) PCR/serology dengue-positive cases. Malaria was more likely in a patient who had visited sub-Saharan Africa and presented with combination of thrombocytopenia, anaemia and fever ≥39.5°C. Leucopenia, muscle pain and rash after travelling to Asia or South/Latin America indicated high probability of dengue. Two scoring systems with points between 0 and 7 for prediction of malaria or dengue were created based on the above predictors. Scores ≥3 indicated >80% sensitivity and specificity for malaria and >90% specificity for dengue in children and adults (area under the curve (AUC) for dengue: 0.92 in adults (95% CI 0.90 to 0.95) and 0.95 in children (95% CI 0.88 to 1.0); AUC for malaria: 0.93 in adults (95% CI 0.91 to 0.96) and 0.88 in children (95% CI 0.78 to 0.99)). Internal validation of optimism and overfitting was managed with bootstrap.ConclusionThe presented scoring systems provide novel tools for structured assessment of patients with tropical fever in a non-endemic area and highlight clinical signs associated with a potential severe aetiology to direct the need for microbial investigation.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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