Zihan Yuan, Yang Ge, Zihao Guo, Hao Lei, Jun Cai, Salihu S Musa, Sheikh T Ali, Jiashu Xue, Kai Wang, Sukhyun Ryu, Ka Chun Chong, Daihai He, Shi Zhao, Abdulrazaq G Habib, Yuantao Hao
{"title":"Transmission characteristics of Sudan virus disease outbreak in Uganda in early 2025.","authors":"Zihan Yuan, Yang Ge, Zihao Guo, Hao Lei, Jun Cai, Salihu S Musa, Sheikh T Ali, Jiashu Xue, Kai Wang, Sukhyun Ryu, Ka Chun Chong, Daihai He, Shi Zhao, Abdulrazaq G Habib, Yuantao Hao","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taaf036","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taaf036","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143988994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michael S Allen, Rebecca J Kilgore, Yan Zhang, Megan T Williams, Sabrina N White, Pete D Teel
{"title":"Evidence for the long-distance transport of ticks and tick-borne pathogens by human travellers to Texas, USA.","authors":"Michael S Allen, Rebecca J Kilgore, Yan Zhang, Megan T Williams, Sabrina N White, Pete D Teel","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taaf032","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taaf032","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The incidence of tick-borne diseases in the USA has surged in recent years, with >50 000 cases reported from an estimated half-million cases annually. While domestic vectors are well characterized, the role of human travel in transporting exotic ticks and pathogens remains poorly understood.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analysed 4808 submissions of ticks removed from individuals to the Tick-Borne Disease Research Laboratory in Texas, USA, from 2004 to 2024. Tick species were identified phenotypically or through DNA-based sequencing, and pathogens (Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp., Ehrlichia spp., Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia microti) were detected using molecular assays. Submitter travel histories were cross-referenced with known tick geographic ranges to identify long-distance transport.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We documented cases of intercontinental, international and domestic interstate transport of ticks by human travellers. Four Ixodes ricinus ticks-originating from Europe-were transported to Texas; one tick carried Borrelia afzelii, a Lyme disease pathogen not endemic to North America. Central and South American Amblyomma species were repeatedly imported, raising concerns for pathogen transmission and tick establishment. Domestic travellers also carried Ixodes scapularis ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Babesia microti and A. phagocytophilum from Lyme-endemic regions of the USA to Texas, along with non-native species Ixodes pacificus, Dermacentor andersoni and Dermacentor occidentalis from endemic areas in the western United States.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Long-distance transport of ticks by travellers represents an underrecognized pathway for the global spread of ticks and tick-borne pathogens. Clinicians should consider travel history in tick-borne illness diagnostics. Enhanced surveillance, public education and travel screening are critical to mitigating these risks.</p>","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12118054/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144028602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Milou J V Serbée, Mirthe de Boer, Iris Storms-Frentz, Robert-Jan Hassing, Maurits P A van Meer
{"title":"Histoplasma capsulatum mimicking lung cancer in a returning traveller.","authors":"Milou J V Serbée, Mirthe de Boer, Iris Storms-Frentz, Robert-Jan Hassing, Maurits P A van Meer","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taaf034","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taaf034","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143999607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toxic travels: the rising threat of methanol poisoning in international travellers.","authors":"Sawettachai Jaita, Gerard Flaherty","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taaf003","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taaf003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142971577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Leidy J Medina-Lozano, Adalberto E Lobato Ureche, José Jaramillo Osorio, Abraham Katime Zuñiga, Bertha Lacouture Ortiz, Álvaro A Faccini-Martínez
{"title":"Paracoccidioidomycosis in a Venezuelan migrant.","authors":"Leidy J Medina-Lozano, Adalberto E Lobato Ureche, José Jaramillo Osorio, Abraham Katime Zuñiga, Bertha Lacouture Ortiz, Álvaro A Faccini-Martínez","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taaf024","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taaf024","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143625057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Travel to low- and middle-income countries and travellers' diarrhoea increase risk of mismatching antimicrobial therapy for urinary tract infection.","authors":"Anu Patjas, Anu Kantele","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taaf025","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taaf025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Travel to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) increases the risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs), including those caused by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales (ESBL-PE). Focusing on international travel, we explored resistance profiles of urinary ESBL-PE and non-ESBL-PE isolates in a low antimicrobial resistance prevalence country and factors associated with UTI treatment failure.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>During 2015-19, we recruited 18-65-year-old individuals with recent ESBL-PE UTI and a respective cohort of those with non-ESBL-PE UTI to complete questionnaires on symptoms, antibiotic therapies and treatment failure risk factors. We compared uropathogens' resistance profiles amongst patients with or without LMIC travel history and conducted multivariable analyses to identify factors contributing to mismatching antimicrobial treatment (uropathogen resistant to the initial antimicrobial used) and clinical failure.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Amongst non-ESBL-PE UTI patients (n = 187), trimethoprim resistance was more common in isolates from individuals with recent LMIC travel (8/19, 42.1%) compared to those without (30/167, 18.0%) [odds ratio (OR) 3.3, compatibility interval (CI) 95% 1.2-9.0]. ESBL-PE isolates (n = 130) showed no differences in resistance profiles with respect to LMIC travel history.In the group non-ESBL-PE UTI, risk factors included microbiological mismatching recent LMIC travel [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 3.6, CI 95% 1.0-12.7] and travellers' diarrhoea (AOR 7.1, CI 95% 1.1-45.6); no factors were significantly associated with mismatching in the group ESBL-PE UTI. As risk factors for clinical failure, in the group non-ESBL-PE UTI, we identified microbiological mismatching (AOR 15.2, CI 95% 4.0-57.9), and renal/bladder disease (AOR 5.2, CI 95% 1.1-23.2), and in the group ESBL-PE UTI, microbiological mismatching (AOR 8.1, CI 95% 2.6-24.7).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>LMIC travel increases the risk of nonmatching empiric antimicrobials, concurring with increased trimethoprim resistance rates amongst the non-ESBL-PE isolates. Our data suggest that UTI patients with recent LMIC travel should not be empirically treated with trimethoprim and, when possible, urinary culturing is warranted.</p>","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12118056/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143743253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrea Farnham, Christoph Hatz, Jan Fehr, Vasiliki Baroutsou, Milo A Puhan, Olivia Veit, Silja Bühler
{"title":"Travel to malaria-endemic areas: using digital geo-location to assess potential exposure risks and health behaviours.","authors":"Andrea Farnham, Christoph Hatz, Jan Fehr, Vasiliki Baroutsou, Milo A Puhan, Olivia Veit, Silja Bühler","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taae141","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taae141","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Travellers frequently visit popular destinations like Brazil, India, Peru, Thailand and Tanzania, each presenting varying malaria risks. The extent to which travellers enter high-risk malaria-endemic areas in destinations with heterogeneous malaria risk remains unclear. We used geo-location via a smartphone application to (i) describe where travellers go within countries with heterogeneous malaria risk (Brazil, India, Peru, Thailand) and (ii) compare mosquito bite prevention behaviours between these destinations and Tanzania, considered entirely high risk for malaria.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This analysis is a sub-study of the Tracking of Urgent Risks in Swiss Travellers (TOURIST2) cohort, which prospectively recruited 1000 travellers (≥18 years, travelling ≤4 weeks) from Swiss travel clinics (Zurich and Basel) between September 2017 and April 2019. We included 734 travellers to Brazil, India, Peru, Thailand and Tanzania who provided geo-location data. Daily health and geo-location data were collected using a smartphone application. Malaria risk was categorized using 2022 malaria maps from the Swiss Expert Committee for Travel Medicine.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the 734 travellers, 525 travelled to Brazil, India, Peru and Thailand and 225 to Tanzania. In Brazil, India, Peru and Thailand, only 2% (n = 13) visited high-risk malaria areas. In Peru, 4% (n = 4) visited a high-risk area; in Brazil, 3% (n = 6); in Thailand, 2% when crossing the border into Myanmar (n = 3); and in India, 0%. Travellers to high-risk areas were more often male (62%), slightly older (median age 42.0) and planned longer trips (median 23.0 days) than other travellers. No participants were diagnosed with malaria. Travellers to Brazil, India, Peru and Thailand used mosquito bite prevention measures less frequently than travellers to Tanzania. Those in Tanzania had higher, but still suboptimal, use of insect spray (65% of travel days).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Travellers to Brazil, India, Peru and Thailand rarely visited high-risk malaria areas, and their adherence to mosquito bite prevention measures was generally low. In Tanzania, adherence was higher but still suboptimal.</p>","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11955158/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142502904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Delayed-onset Plasmodium ovale malaria in returning Thai military personnels from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).","authors":"Sakarn Charoensakulchai, Kesinee Chotivanich, Wasin Matsee, Watcharapong Piyaphanee, Phimphan Pisutsan","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taaf014","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taaf014","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143449486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards travel therapy: addressing the health benefits of international travel.","authors":"Gerard T Flaherty, Robert Steffen, Karin Leder","doi":"10.1093/jtm/taae091","DOIUrl":"10.1093/jtm/taae091","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of travel medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141498337","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}