Multi-resistant Enterobacterales (MRE) are on the increase worldwide, with the main mechanism of resistance acquisition being horizontal transfer of plasmids coding for extended-spectrum betalactamase and/or carbapenemase. Low- and middle-income countries are the most affected, but surveillance in low-endemicity countries, such as Switzerland, is essential. International travel is one of the sources of MRE dissemination in the community, with the main risk factors for acquiring MRE being a stay in South or Southeast Asia and the use of antibiotics during travel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Dengue virus is a flavivirus transmitted by mosquitoes and is an important cause of illness worldwide. Data on the severity of travel-associated dengue illness are limited.
Objective: To describe the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and outcomes among international travelers with severe dengue or dengue with warning signs as defined by the 2009 World Health Organization classification (that is, complicated dengue).
The Swiss Expert Committee on Travel Medicine (ECTM) - a body of the Swiss Society of Tropical Medicine and Travel Medicine (FMH) - publishes recommendations and information on travel medicine on the website www.healthytravel.ch in four languages (German, French, Italian, English).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTravel Med Infect Dis
April 2023
Background: Current surveillance of travellers' health captures only a small proportion of illness events. We aimed to evaluate the usability and feasibility of using an app to enable travellers to self-report illness.
Method: This pilot study assesses a novel mobile application called Infection Tracking in Travellers (ITIT) that records travel-related symptoms with associated geolocation and weather data.
Background: Blastocystis sp. is a worldwide-distributed protist colonizing the guts of humans and a great variety of animals. It is unclear whether it is just a commensal or an infectious parasite that prompts eradication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBefore starting immunosuppressive therapy, it is important to screen for latent tuberculosis and, in case of particular exposures (e.g. travel, origin,…), for parasitosis such as amoebiasis, echinococcosis, strongyloidiasis and American trypanosomiasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe year 2020 witnessed a record number of reported cases of tick-borne encephalitis in Switzerland. This unprecedented rate of cases, largely explained by the decrease in travel outside of Switzerland as well as favorable conditions for outdoor activities, highlights this severe disease for which there is no treatment yet. Tick-borne ence-phalitis has been progressing in Switzerland for more than 30 years both geographically and in terms of the number of reported cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUndoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has had impacts in many areas, including travel and by extension on daily practice in tropical and travel medicine. The intercontinental travelers in decline have been replaced by a new population of travelers who previously did not require specific consultations. SARS-CoV-2 has earned its place in the pre-travel consultation in view of the medical and administrative implications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with inflammatory rheumatologic diseases are at increased risk for infectious complications, including SARS-CoV-2, which represent one of the leading causes of death in this population. This risk is due to both the numerous comorbidities of this patient's group and the immunosuppressive therapies they receive. Vaccination reduces the incidence, complications, and mortality from infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF, causative agent of a neglected tropical disease, is a soil-transmitted helminth which may cause lifelong persisting infection due to continuous autoinfection. In the case of immunosuppression, life-threatening hyperinfection and disseminated strongyloidiasis can develop. We propose a pragmatic screening algorithm for latent strongyloidiasis based on epidemiologic exposure and immunosuppression status that can be applied for any kind of immunosuppressive therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReactivation of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) or latent parasitic infection (LPI) during drug-induced immunosuppression can have serious consequences. The Division of tropical and humanitarian medicine of the Geneva University Hospitals runs a specific consultation for parasitic screening of immunosuppressed or pre-immunosuppressed patients. We sought to determine the seroprevalence of LTBI and LPI in such patients and explore its relationship with country of origin or previous travel in a retrospective, single-centre observational study from 2016 to 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Rationale: Geneva University Hospitals were granted a temporary authorization to administer the recombinant live vesicular stomatitis virus rVSV-ZEBOV (Ervebo®) vaccine to expatriate humanitarian frontline workers (FLWs) prior to mission deployment.
Objectives: Our aims were to assess the feasibility of FLW vaccination before deployment and to report adverse events (AEs).
Methods: FLWs received a single injection of rVSV-ZEBOV (>7.
Mult Scler Relat Disord
June 2021
Background: No studies assessing rabies vaccine (RV) tolerability in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) have been conducted. Given the lack of safety data, RV is recommended essentially only for post-exposure prophylaxis, which is difficult to administer effectively in many rabies-endemic countries. We sought to determine whether RV administration as pre-exposure prophylaxis was associated with MS relapse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnteric fever, caused by serovar Typhi ( Typhi) and serovar Paratyphi ( Paratyphi), is a common travel-related illness. Limited data are available on the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) patterns of these serovars among travelers. Records of travelers with a culture-confirmed diagnosis seen during or after travel from January 2007 to December 2018 were obtained from GeoSentinel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: More people on immunosuppression live in or wish to travel to yellow fever virus (YFV)-endemic areas. Data on the safety and immunogenicity of yellow fever vaccination (YFVV) during immunosuppression are scarce. The aim of this study was to compare the safety and immunogenicity of a primary YFVV between travellers on methotrexate and controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm
July 2020
Objective: To determine whether live-attenuated yellow fever vaccine (YFV) was associated with MS relapse, we evaluated the clinical courses of 23 patients in the year before and the year after immunization at the university hospital of Geneva, Switzerland.
Methods: This self-controlled retrospective cohort included adult patients with MS receiving YFV between 2014 and 2018 and defined the year before vaccination, the 3 months thereafter, and the 9 months following as the pre-exposure (PEP), exposure-risk (ERP), and postrisk (PRP) periods, respectively. The primary outcome was the relative incidence of relapse in the ERP vs the PEP.
is part of the normal human oropharyngeal microflora and is frequently associated with dental caries and periodontal disease. Invasive disease has been described essentially in immunocompromised hosts and/or patients with underlying conditions as predisposing factors. We present a case of an otherwise healthy 46-years old male with spondylodiscitis caused by this pathogen.
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