Fever and their etiologies

Abstract

The practice of Travel Medicine (TM) has 3 stages at which you can work: the pre-travel, the intra-trip and the post travel assistance. Many services only deal with pre-travel, strongly related to preventive measures, including vaccinations and malaria prophylaxis, and transfers to centers of Tropical Medicine, Internal Medicine Clinic or the Infectious Diseases Consultations ill patients encountered during the trip or upon returning. The need to cover all these stages in the centers of TM is controversial, even within their own ISTM. Our service, in the context of an Infectious Disease Hospital, allows comprehensive care of travelers in any of the 3 instances. The most frequent reasons for consultation in returning travelers are the dermatological disease, fever, diarrhea and eosinophilia. The fever is about 30% of all searches, and the most common etiology is for malaria, followed by dengue, typhoid fever and rickettsial diseases. The diagnoses may vary according to geographic destination and the traveler's risk exposure. It is important not to forget cosmopolitan disease and non-infectious causes in the differential diagnosis. The febrile syndrome after a trip to tropical areas is a medical emergency, because it can be falciparum malaria, or a viral hemorrhagic fever among others etiologies, which can endanger both the patient and health staff involved with him, and potentially to the community of the host country of the traveler.