Travel related infections Flashcards
What makes travelers more vulnerable to infection?
- Temptation to take risks away from home (sex, food)
- Different epidemiology of some diseases
- Incomplete understanding of health hazards
- Stress of travel
- Refugees: deprivation, malnutrition
What infections are common worldwide?
- Influenza
- Community acquired pneumonia
- Meningococcal disease
- STIs
What are some climate/environmental related health problems?
- Sunburn
- Heat exhaustion
- Fungal infections
- Bacterial skin infections
- Cold injury
- Altitude sickness
What are infections controlled by public health measures? Eg sanitation immunization education
Sanitation
-Travellers diarrhoea, viral gastroenteritis, food poisoning, cholera, shigella dysentery, hep A or E
Immunisation
-Poliomyelitis, diphtheria
Education
-HIV, STDs
What are some water related infections?
- Schistosomiasis
- Leptospirosis
- Liver flukes
- Strongyloidiasis
- Hookworms
What are some arthropod borne infections?
- Malaria (mosquitoes)
- Dengue fever (mosquitoes)
- Rickettsial infections (ticks)
- Leishmaniasis (sand flies)
- Filariasis (mosquitoes)
What are some infectious diseases?
- Zika: Latin America, Caribbean
- Ebola: W Africa
- MERS-CoV: Middle East
- Swine flu: worldwide
- Avian flu: China
- SARS: worldwide
- West Nile virus: USA
What are some important tropical diseases?
- Malaria
- Typhoid
- Dengue fever
- Schistosomiasis
- Rickettsiosis
- Viral haemorrhagic fevers
- Zika fever
How many reported cases per year is there of malaria?
200 million cases per year. Most common in Africa, Latin America, India
What is the life cycle of malaria?
- Mosquito infects human
- Human carries malaria in blood
- Female mosquito bites human and now carries malaria parasite
- Gives birth and the child also has malaria parasite
- Goes off to infect other humans
What are the 5 species of malaria parasite?
Potentially severe
-Plasmodium falciparum
Benign
-Plasmodium vivax/ovale/malariae/knowlesi
What are symptoms of malaria?
- Fever
- Rigors
- Aching bones
- Abdo pain
- Headache
- Dysuria
- Frequency
- Sore throat
- Cough
What are signs of malaria?
- Can be none
- Splenomegaly
- Hepatomegaly
- Mild jaundice
What are some complications of malaria?
- Cerebral malaria (encephalopathy): convulsions, hypoxia
- Blackwater fever: severe haemolysis, high parasitaemia, acute renal failure, haemoglobinuria
- Pul. oedema
- Jaundice
- Severe anaemia
- Algid malaria (gram -ve septicaemia)
How is malaria diagnosed?
- Thick and thin blood films (Giemsa, Field’s stain)
- Quantitative buffy coat (centrifugation, UV microscopy)
- Rapid antigen tests (OptiMal, ParaSight-F)
There is a severity assessment for malaria. Having ‘complicated malaria’ = one or more of what?
- Impaired consciousness/seizures
- Hypoglycaemia
- Parasite count at least 2%
- Haemoglobin 8mg/dL or less
- Renal impairment/pH <7.3
- Pul oedema or ARDS
- Shock (algid malaria)
What are treatment options for uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria?
- Riamet 3 days
- Eurartesim (artemisinin) 3 days
- Malarone 3 days
- Quinine 7 days plus oral doxycycline (or clindamycin)
What are treatment options for complicated/severe P. falciparum malaria?
- IV artesunate (unlicensed in UK)
- IV quinine plus oral doxycycline (or clindamycin)
Treatment of P. vivax/ovale/malariae/knowlesi malaria?
- Chloroquine 3 days
- Riamet 3 days
- Add primaquine (14d) in vivax and ovale to eradicate liver hypnozoites
What are some malaria control programmes?
- Mosquiro breeding sites (draining standing water)
- Larvacides
- Mosquito killing sprays
- Human behaviour (bed nets, mesh windows)
Typhoid fever is widespread and happens due to poor sanitation and unclean drinking water. What organisms cause this?
- Salmonella typhi
- Salmonella paratyphi
What is the incubation period for typhoid fever?
1-4 weeks