Table 4.
Cases of acute and potentially life-threatening bacterial diseases (N = 820) among 82,825 ill western travelers to the tropics: data from the GeoSentinel surveillance network, 1996–2011
| Typhoid fever | Paratyphoid fever | Leptospirosis | Spotted fever group rickettsiosis* | Murine typhus | Scrub typhus | Relapsing fever | Melioidosis | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of cases | 428 | 233 | 88 | 29 | 16 | 13 | 7 | 6 |
| Age (median; range in years) | 28 (1–77) | 27 (6–75) | 34.5 (19–66) | 36.5 (15–73) | 29.5 (19–69) | 30 (19–67) | 39 (21–62) | 38 (27–58) |
| Time to presentation (median; range in days)† | 12 (1–179) | 15 (1–150) | 9 (1–140) | 9.5 (1–115) | 14 (1–43) | 6 (1–102) | 16 (1–144) | 14 (1–28) |
| Males (n, %) | 232 (54) | 137 (59) | 72 (82) | 16 (55) | 8 (50) | 9 (69) | 5 (71) | 5 (83) |
| Reason for travel (n, %) | ||||||||
| Tourism | 210 (49) | 131 (56) | 71 (82) | 20 (69) | 9 (56) | 11 (85) | 2 (43) | 3 (50) |
| Business | 36 (8) | 17 (7) | 8 (9) | 4 (14) | 0 (0) | 2 (15) | 1 (14) | 3 (50) |
| VFR | 123 (28) | 54 (23) | 3 (4) | 4 (14) | 3 (19) | 0 (0) | 1 (14) | 0 (0) |
| Other | 59 (14) | 31 (13) | 5 (6) | 1 (4) | 4 (25) | 0 (0) | 3 (43) | 0 (0) |
| Pre-travel consultation (n, %) | 160 (40) | 113 (53) | 32 (40) | 12 (43) | 5 (33) | 6 (50) | 3 (43) | 1 (20) |
| Exposure region (n, %) | ||||||||
| Caribbean | 10 (2) | 1 (< 1) | 7 (8) | 2 (7) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (17) |
| Central America | 25 (6) | 1 (< 1) | 15 (17) | 4 (14) | 1 (6) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| Middle East | 1 (< 1) | 4 (2) | 0 (0) | 1 (4) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (14) | 0 (0) |
| North Africa | 1 (< 1) | 3 (1) | 3 (3) | 5 (17) | 1 (6) | 0 (0) | 1 (14) | 0 (0) |
| Northeast Asia | 3 (1) | 1 (< 1) | 0 (0) | 3 (10) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| Oceania | 1 (0.3) | 0 (0) | 2 (2) | 1 (4) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| South America | 14 (3) | 7 (3) | 4 (5) | 2 (7) | 1 (6) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (17) |
| South Central Asia | 286 (67) | 185 (79) | 3 (3) | 6 (21) | 1 (6) | 2 (15) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) |
| Southeast Asia | 45 (11) | 21 (9) | 49 (56) | 5 (17) | 10 (63) | 10 (77) | 0 (0) | 4 (67) |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 42 (10) | 10 (4) | 5 (7) | 0 (0) | 2 (13) | 0 (0) | 5 (71) | 0 (0) |
| Hospitalization (n, %) | 191 (45) | 133 (57) | 44 (50) | 13 (45) | 8 (50) | 2 (15) | 6 (86) | 4 (67) |
| Death (n, %) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 2 (33) |
NA = not applicable.
*
For cases exposed outside of sub-Saharan Africa.
†
For cases seen post-travel only.