Infection: Travel Related Infections Flashcards
Why is it important to obtain a good travel history?
- it is important to recognise diseases imported to the UK
- there are different strains of pathogen in different countries
- the pathogen may have different antibiotic resistance eg you can buy antibiotics OTC in some countries
What questions should you ask related to travel history?
Where have they been: be aware of sub-saharan africa, SE asia and south america.
Find out about any sexual contact, swimming, food and water theyve consumed, animal bites
Did they have to go to hospital abroad eg hospital abroad may have multi drug resistant organisms
Did they take the correct measures eg pre travel vaccinations, malaria tablets etc
What travel related infection should ALWAYS be excluded first
MALARIA
What are the 4 main species causing malaria?
Plasmodium falciparum: the most common and the most dangerous. Prevalent in Africa
Plasmodium vivax and ovale: common in SE asia - can live dormant in liver for up to 1 year
Plasmodium malariae
How is malaria spread?
Via a vector - the female anopheles mosquito
Outline the malaria lifecycle
Malaria sporozoids enter the bloodstream when the mosquito feeds and travel to the liver and infect the hepatocytes
Here they mature into schizonts and create thousands of merozoites which burst out of the hepatocyte and enter the blood stream
They then infect RBC, multiply inside then rupture the RBC leading to massive destruction of RBCs
A few develop into gametocytes which remain in the blood stream for several days and may be injested by another feeding mosquito
Inside the mosquito the gametocytes develop into new sporozoids
(watch youtube animation)
How is malaria treated?
Plasmodium falciparum - artesunate, quinine and doxycycline
What is enteric fever?
Typhoid fever caused by salmonella typhi
It is most commonly from travel to india and is passed on via the faecal oral route from contaminated food and water or from person to person
What is the classification of salmonella typhi?
Gram negative bacilli in the gut
What are some of the symptoms of enteric fever?
Its a systemic disease - bacteraemia
There is fever, headache, abdo pain, constipation, dry cough
There is also bradycardia which is unusual for a fever
How is enteric fever treated?
There is a lot of resistance
Usually treated with ceftatrioxone for 7-14 days
