Mefloquine at the crossroads? Implications for malaria chemoprophylaxis in Europe.

Since its introduction to the market in 1985, mefloquine has been used for malaria chemoprophylaxis by more than 35 million travellers. In Europe, in 2014, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued recommendations on strengthened warnings, prescribing checklists and updates to the product information of mefloquine. Some malaria prevention advisors question the scientific basis for the restrictions and suggest that this cost-effective, anti-malarial drug will be displaced as a first-line anti-malaria medication with the result that vulnerable groups such as VFR and long-term travellers, pregnant travellers and young children are left without a suitable alternative chemoprophylaxis.

Clinical aspects and management of cutaneous leishmaniasis in rheumatoid patients treated with TNF-α antagonists.

Patients under immunosuppressive therapy with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) antagonists are vulnerable to various opportunistic infections including leishmaniasis. We present a case series of 8 travellers developing cutaneous leishmaniasis whilst on TNF-α antagonist treatment and review the literature on aspects of cutaneous leishmaniasis developing in patients treated with TNF-α antagonists. We make interim recommendations regarding the drug therapy used to maintain remission in travellers with rheumatoid disease travelling to leishmania prone areas.

[Adventure travel].

Extreme travelling experiences appear to be a quite popular kick offered by tourist operators and sought by some travellers. But some travellers expose themselves to increased risk also during normal holidays, either voluntarily by booking hikes or tours leading them to adventurous locations or to unexpectedly encountering dangerous situations. In planned adventures, precise information in advance, good physical condition, careful planning, and profound medical preparation may contribute to a less hazardous adventure.

Real-life versus package insert: a post-marketing study on adverse-event rates of the virosomal hepatitis A vaccine Epaxal® in healthy travellers.

There are various methods to collect adverse events (AEs) in clinical trials. The methods how AEs are collected in vaccine trials is of special interest: solicited reporting can lead to over-reporting events that have little or no biological relationship to the vaccine. We assessed the rate of AEs listed in the package insert for the virosomal hepatitis A vaccine Epaxal(®), comparing data collected by solicited or unsolicited self-reporting.

Successful memory response following a booster dose with a virosome-formulated hepatitis a vaccine delayed up to 11 years.

Boosting adult travelers with the virosome-formulated, aluminum-free hepatitis A vaccine Epaxal up to 128 months after a single primary dose confers full protection against hepatitis A, even in travelers aged 50 years and above. Delaying the booster dose did not influence the immune memory response to Epaxal.

Lepromatous leprosy with erythema nodosum leprosum as immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome in an HIV-1 infected patient after initiation of antiretroviral therapy.

We present the case of an HIV infected male patient with erythema nodosum leprosum and function loss of the peroneus nerve as manifestations of lepromatous leprosy. Since symptoms occurred after initiation of antiretroviral therapy and recovery of the immune system, the clinical picture is suggestive of a rare form of an immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.

First case of ivermectin-induced severe hepatitis.

Loiasis, caused by the filarial parasite Loa loa, is endemic in West and Central Africa. Ivermectin has been shown to be an effective treatment of loiasis. We report the case of a 20-year-old woman originally from Cameroon who was infected by the L.

Tolerability of malaria chemoprophylaxis in non-immune travellers to sub-Saharan Africa: multicentre, randomised, double blind, four arm study.

Objective: To compare the tolerability of malaria chemoprophylaxis regimens in non-immune travellers.

Design: Randomised, double blind, study with placebo run-in phase.

Setting: Travel clinics in Switzerland, Germany, and Israel.

Successful booster antibody response up to 54 months after single primary vaccination with virosome-formulated, aluminum-free hepatitis A vaccine.

This study demonstrates that a booster dose of the virosome-formulated, aluminum-free hepatitis A vaccine Epaxal (Berna Biotech) is highly immunogenic in subjects who received a single primary dose of this vaccine 18-54 months earlier. There were no significant differences in geometric mean antibody titers (GMTs) among subjects who received the booster dose 18-29 months (GMT, 2330 mIU/mL), 30-41 months (GMT, 2395 mIU/mL), or 42-54 months (GMT, 2432 mIU/mL) after primary vaccination, indicating that delays in the administration of booster vaccination do not lead to a loss of immunogenicity.