| Affiliation: | 1. Unidad de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Medicina Tropical, Hospital Universitario Insular de Gran Canaria, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain;2. División de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria, Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain;3. Servicio de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Hospital Universitario Vall d’Hebron, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, PROSICS, Barcelona, Spain;4. Unidad de Aislamiento de Alto Nivel (UAAN), Sección de Infecciosas, Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Central de la Defensa Gómez Ulla, Madrid, Spain;5. Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Universitario de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Spain;6. Unidad de Enfermedades Tropicales, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain;g. Unidad de Referencia Nacional para Enfermedades Tropicales, Servicio de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, IRYCIS, Madrid, Spain;h. Servicio de Dermatología, Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain;i. Servicio de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Hospital Universitario Basurto, Bilbao, Spain;j. Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Príncipe de Asturias, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain;k. ISGlobal, Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain;l. Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, Alicante, Spain;m. Centro Nacional de Microbiología, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain;n. Sección de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Medicina Interna, Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain;o. Servicio de Medicina Interna, Sección de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Complejo Asistencial Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain;p. Unidad de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital La Paz, Madrid, Spain;q. Servicio de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, Spain |
| Abstract: | In a global world, knowledge of imported infectious diseases is essential in daily practice, both for the microbiologist–parasitologist and the clinician who diagnoses and treats infectious diseases in returned travelers. Tropical and subtropical countries where there is a greater risk of contracting an infectious disease are among the most frequently visited tourist destinations. The SEIMC considers it appropriate to produce a consensus document that will be useful to primary care physicians as well as specialists in internal medicine, infectious diseases and tropical medicine who help treat travelers returning from tropical and sub-tropical areas with infections. Preventive aspects of infectious diseases and infections imported by immigrants are explicitly excluded here, since they have been dealt with in other SEIMC documents.Various types of professionals (clinicians, microbiologists, and parasitologists) have helped produce this consensus document by evaluating the available evidence-based data in order to propose a series of key facts about individual aspects of the topic. The first section of the document is a summary of some of the general aspects concerning the general assessment of travelers who return home with potential infections. The main second section contains the key facts (causative agents, diagnostic procedures and therapeutic measures) associated with the major infectious syndromes affecting returned travelers [gastrointestinal syndrome (acute or persistent diarrhea); febrile syndrome with no obvious source of infection; localized cutaneous lesions; and respiratory infections]. Finally, the characteristics of special traveler subtypes, such as pregnant women and immunocompromised travelers, are described. |
