Journal of travel medicine
-
Meta Analysis
Risk of latent and active tuberculosis infection in travellers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Achieving tuberculosis (TB) elimination in low TB incidence countries requires identification and treatment of individuals at risk for latent TB infection (LTBI). Persons travelling to high TB incidence countries are potentially at risk for TB exposure. This systematic review and meta-analysis estimates incident LTBI and active TB among individuals travelling from low to higher TB incidence countries. ⋯ We found that travelling HCWs were at highest risk of developing LTBI. Individual risk activities and travel purpose were most associated with risk of TB infection acquired during travel.
-
Cholera is endemic in ~50 countries worldwide and remains a disease associated with poverty, causing illness and death in the poorest and most vulnerable people. In travellers, cholera is considered a low-incidence disease, but the true impact on travellers is difficult to assess. Cholera vaccination may improve safety for certain European travellers at risk. Effective vaccines are available; however, vaccination recommendations in Europe vary considerably between countries. ⋯ With the ease of intra-European travel, it would seem sensible to harmonize the recommendations for cholera vaccination and risk perception across Europe, providing pre-travel health advisers with a trusted source of information that allows them to provide consistent recommendations.
-
Medical tourism has been increasing dramatically globally, with people travelling from developed countries to low-income or middle-income countries, often to avoid high costs or long delays associated with seeking healthcare in their countries of origin. The current review summarizes healthcare-related infections associated with medical tourism, focusing on cosmetic surgery and organ transplantation. ⋯ There is a need for public health strategies in order to prevent morbidity and mortality as well as future management and education of patients engaging in medical tourism.
-
Inflammatory bowel disease poses substantial challenges to travel. We aimed to investigate inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD)-associated challenges to travel, information-seeking behaviour and associated factors. ⋯ We report a detailed investigation on the IBD-associated barriers while travelling abroad, common information-seeking behaviours and factors associated with worse outcomes. Importantly, patients from all the surveyed countries provided similar travel barrier and preparation habits, highlighting the consistent nature of the challenge.