This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Region-specific disease exposure should guide prevention among travelers to Africa
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Health risks associated with travel to Africa vary based on region, and pre-travel advice should be guided by knowledge of the prevalent exposure risks specific to that area of the continent, according to recent findings published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Marc Mendelson, PhD, head of the division of infectious diseases and HIV medicine at the University of Cape Town Croote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, and colleagues utilized data from the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network Database, an international group of specialized travel and tropical medicine practitioners located in 23 countries on five continents, to analyze data on ill travelers.
The investigators collected health records for 16,893 travelers who returned from Africa with an illness during a 14-year period. They analyzed the illnesses in relation to travel region by classifying Africa into the following subregions: eastern, central, northern, southern and western Africa. Ill travelers who returned from a country within an African region were thought to have been exposed to the causative pathogen in the region if the GeoSentinel database chronicled its occurrence there, according to the study data.
The researchers included for analysis all ill travelers listed in the database between March 14, 1997, and May 31, 2011. Of the 54 database sites reporting between 2007 and 2011, 35 sites reported regularly during this time, and the researchers only used data from those 35 sites for the trend analysis.
They found that among travelers to northern Africa, the most frequently reported anomalies were gastrointestinal illnesses and dog bites. Illnesses accompanied by fever were more prevalent among those returning from sub-Saharan African countries. There were 11 deaths among the ill travelers, nine of which were from malaria; these predominantly occurred among male business travelers to sub-Saharan countries.
Although malaria was found to be prevalent in travelers returning from central and western Africa, travelers to eastern and western Africa were most frequently affected by schistosomiasis, strongyloidiasis and dengue. Travelers to central Africa were most often found to have loiasis, also known as African eye worm. Reports of vaccine-preventable infections, HIV and tuberculosis were infrequent.
According to the researchers, preventive pre-travel strategies should be informed by these findings on regional illness profiles.
“For Northern Africa, advice should include detailed information about food hygiene and rabies prophylaxis. For countries in the Southern African region, malaria chemoprophylaxis and mosquito bite prevention measures should be used to prevent malaria acquisition during travel to regions in which malaria is endemic,” the researchers wrote. “Advice about preventing tick-borne rickettsial infections is essential for travelers to Southern Africa. Preexposure and postexposure rabies vaccination, travelers’ diarrhea, and vaccine-preventable diseases should be discussed with travelers to destinations on the entire African continent.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts