A SURVEY OF NOTIFIED TRAVEL-ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS - IMPLICATIONS FOR TRAVEL HEALTH ADVICE

Background Travel-associated illness affects at least 25 per cent of U K residents who travel abroad each year. Notified cases form only a sm all proportion of the total community burden of disease but neverthele ss represent a substantial workload for community infection control se rvices. The aim of the study was to describe the incidence of notified travel-associated infectious illness, the extent and sources of trave l health advice, and the nature of risk-avoiding behaviour in that pop ulation. Method A questionnaire survey was carried out of 190 consecut ive notifications of food poisoning and malaria over a nine-month peri od where travel abroad was an identifiable factor. Results The inciden ce of notified travel-associated food poisoning during the study perio d was 204 per million resident population per year. Thirteen per cent of respondents reported taking no precautions against food poisoning, and up to 75 per cent of the cases could have taken better precautions . Only 36 per cent of cases recalled advice from their travel agent. H alf the cases did not visit their general practitioner before travel ( 20 per cent of travellers to high-risk destinations). There was a stro ng association between receiving advice before travelling and risk-avo iding behaviour. The source of advice did not appear to affect the ext ent of precautions taken. The cases clearly expressed a need for addit ional written travel health information in the appropriate style and l anguage for their ethnic group. Ethnic minority cases utilized officia l travel health advice to the same extent as the Caucasian cases. Conc lusion In this case series, 75 per cent of travellers did not take suf ficient basic precautions against infection. There was a need to impro ve advice about simple precautions to avoid infection. General practic e was the commonest source of advice for the travellers in this study. The apparently low level of advice from travel agents needs to be add ressed in any local initiative to improve the health of travellers.