Table 1: Demographic characteristics of 437 returned travellers or new immigrants with 456 malaria diagnoses who presented to a CanTravNet site for care, 2004-2014*.
| Characteristic | All cases (456 diagnoses; 437 patients) |
Purpose of travel; no. (%)† | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visiting friends and relatives§ (174 diagnoses; 169 patients) | Business (77 diagnoses; 71 patients) | Missionary, volunteer, research or aid work(73 diagnoses; 69 patients) | Immigration (62 diagnoses; 60 patients) |
Tourism (54 diagnoses; 52 patients |
Other‡ (16 diagnoses; 16 patients) |
||
| Sex | |||||||
| Male | 278 (63.6) | 101 (59.8) | 62 (87.3) | 38 (55.1) | 39 (65.0) | 26 (50.0) | 12 (75.0) |
| Female | 159 (36.4) | 68 (40.2) | 9 (12.7) | 31 (44.9) | 21 (35.0) | 26 (50.0) | 4 (25.0) |
| Age, yr, median (range) | 33.5 (1-82) | 37 (2-82) | 42 (21-71) | 28 (12-68) | 22 (1-64) | 39 (1-75) | 22 (14-48) |
| Children and adolescents (age < 18 yr) | 27 (6.2) | 10 (5.9) | 0 (0) | 1 (1.4) | 14 (23.3) | 1 (1.9) | 1(6.3) |
| Type of patient | |||||||
| Inpatient | 141 (32.3) | 52 (30.8) | 28 (39.4) | 21 (30.4) | 18 (30.0) | 16 (30.8) | 6 (37.5) |
| Outpatient | 296 (67.7) | 117 (69.2) | 43 (60.6) | 48 (69.6) | 42 (70.0) | 36 (69.2) | 10 (62.5) |
| Travel duration, d, median (range) | 35 (0-7256) | 34 (0-884) | 33 (0-1065) | 61 (3-831) | NA | 19 (0-547) | 90 (1-7256) |
| Pretravel medical encounter | |||||||
| Yes | 131 (30.0) | 29 (17.1) | 39 (54.9) | 39 (56.5) | NA | 16 (30.8) | 6 (37.5) |
| No | 217 (49.7) | 110 (65.1) | 19 (26.8) | 14 (20.3) | NA | 24 (46.2) | 5 (31.3) |
| Unknown | 89 (20.4) | 28 (16.6) | 13 (18.3) | 16 (23.2) | NA | 12 (23.1) | 5 (31.3) |
| Geographic region of exposure | |||||||
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 326 (74.6) | 133 (78.7) | 57 (80.3) | 58 (84.1) | 38 (63.3) | 28 (53.8) | 11 (68.8) |
| South Central Asia | 55 (12.6) | 30 (17.8) | 1 (1.4) | 0 (0) | 15 (25.0) | 4 (7.7) | 5 (31.2) |
| South America | 9 (2.1) | 2 (1.2) | 3 (4.2) | 1 (1.4) | 1 (1.7) | 2 (3.8) | 0 (0) |
| Caribbean | 9 (2.1) | 1 (0.6) | 1 (1.4) | 2 (2.9) | 0 (0) | 5 (9.6) | 0 (0) |
| North Africa | 10 (2.3) | 1 (0.6) | 1 (1.4) | 3 (4.3) | 4 (6.7) | 1 (1.9) | 0 (0) |
| Southeast Asia | 7 (1.6) | 0 (0) | 1 (1.4) | 3 (4.3) | 2 (3.3) | 1 (1.9) | 0 (0) |
| Central America | 8 (1.8) | 1 (0.6) | 1 (1.4) | 1 (1.4) | 0 (0) | 5 (9.6) | 0 (0) |
| Oceania | 4 (0.9) | 0 (0) | 1 (1.4) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 3 (5.8) | 0 (0) |
| Unknown | 10 (2.3) | 1 (0.6) | 5 (7.0) | 1 (1.4) | 0 (0) | 3 (5.8) | 0 (0) |
| Birth country | |||||||
| Canada | 148 (33.9) | 11 (6.5) | 43 (60.6) | 59 (85.5) | 0 (0) | 29 (55.8) | 6 (37.5) |
| Other | 289 (66.1) | 158 (93.5) | 28 (39.4) | 10 (14.5) | 60 (100) | 23 (44.2) | 10 (62.5) |
Note: NA = not available.*The total cohort of travellers consisted of 18 870 travellers with a definitive travel-related diagnosis, 931 with a non-travel-related diagnosis, and 544 with a diagnosis for which relation to travel could not be ascertained. This analysis includes only those travellers with a final diagnosis of malaria, except where indicated otherwise.
†Unless otherwise specified.
‡Includes 15 cases in students and 1 case in military personnel.
§Among patients born outside of Canada, people who travelled for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives were defined as immigrants who were ethnically or racially distinct from the majority population in their current country of residence and who returned to their homeland to visit friends and relatives. This group also included children of foreign-born parents (i.e., second-generation immigrants) who returned to their parents' homeland to visit friends and relatives.