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Analysis of Occurrence of Imported Infectious Diseases in the Region of South Bohemia over the Last Five Years
MYSLÍK, Ladislav
Imported diseases are infections that have been acquired during a travel or a stay abroad. Such infectious diseases may include cosmopolitan and potential re-introduction illnesses and tropical and re-emerging illnesses. The movement of populations affects the distribution and spread of communicable diseases globally. Today?s mobility and unnatural interaction of different races or otherwise geographically defined populations facilitate the emergence of contagious diseases in humans, animals or, even in plants. Some pathogens can be imported into a new area by travellers or immigrants in the absence of illness signs or symptoms. Many geographical barriers have now been breached by mobility and migration. The theoretical section of this thesis is mainly aimed to provide a description of the most common imported diseases according to their current epidemiological trends. Travel-related risks, risk groups of travellers and migration characteristics are also mentioned. In addition, it deals with domestic and international inbound and outbound tourism and includes a forecast of international tourism development towards 2030. The conclusion of the theoretical section aims to describe epidemiology of imported diseases and to provide an insight into systems of monitoring and surveillance of travel-related infections, such as GeoSentinel Surveillance Network, EuroTravNet, TropNet and the Czech Nationwide Epidat information system. The objective of this diploma thesis of the empirical section is to carry out an analysis of occurrence of imported infectious diseases in the Region of South Bohemia over the last five years. Data and information recorded into Epidat database from 2007 to 2011 shapes the target group. Methods of research are mainly based on descriptive statistics that describe most of collected data quantitatively. Moreover, seven hypotheses were designed that were tested via results using regression analysis, Pearson's chi-squared test and Student's t-test. A total of 190 cases from 46 world-wide destinations were imported between 2007 and 2011. Of those, 166 were imported by residents; 24 cases were brought in by foreigners. The most frequent countries of acquisition were European destinations (49%; n = 92), Asia (33%; n = 63) and Africa (16%; n = 31). Gastro-intestinal (GI) diseases accounted for 68.4% of illnesses, followed by blood-borne and vector-borne infections. GI conditions included campylobacteriosis (n = 38), salmonellosis (n = 33) and shigellosis (n = 30). Amongst blood-borne diseases, hepatitis B accounted for 21 cases (mainly in Vietnamese). Amongst vector-borne illnesses, 6 cases of malaria and 1 case of dengue were identified. Hypothesis H1 (further described only as H2, etcetera) "There is an association between numbers of travellers and occurrence of imported infectious diseases" was rejected. H2 "There is a different incidence rate among countries of acquisition" could not be confirmed because of the lack of the denominator data (numbers of travellers to specific destinations). H3 "The most frequent countries of acquisition are European countries" was confirmed and accepted. H4 "The highest rate of imported infectious diseases is in the České Budějovice District" was confirmed and accepted. H5 "The most frequent imported infections are gastro-intestinal diseases" was confirmed and accepted. H6 "There is a descending tendency of occurrence of imported infectious diseases" was rejected. H7 "There is a higher likelihood of presenting with a vaccination preventable disease in unvaccinated returned travellers" could not be confirmed due to the lack of data.
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