Exposure history | Examples | Typical infections/pathogens to consider |
General |
| Rainy season | Malaria, dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile virus, and other mosquito-borne infections |
Dry season | Meningococcal disease (Neisseria meningitidis) |
| Long stay | Tuberculosis |
- What kind of places did you stay in?
| Local house, rudimentary construction | Numerous pathogens, especially vector borne and rodent borne |
| Rural areas | Numerous vector-borne diseases and food- and water-borne pathogens |
- What was the main reason for your trip?
| Visiting friends and relatives | Malaria, enteric fever, tuberculosis |
Specific exposures |
| Visit relatives, field research, construction, safaris, visit slums, help in clinic, sightsee, attend meetings, teach/attend classes | Pathogens vary depending on activities. Travelers active outdoors may have exposure to ticks, mosquitoes, and other vectors and associated infections (eg, malaria, rickettsiosis, leishmaniasis), whereas travelers with close contact with local people may have exposure via blood, secretions, or direct contact (eg, HIV, hepatitis B, meningococcus, tuberculosis). |
- What did you eat or drink?
| Tap water, ice in drinks, raw vegetables, undercooked meats, questionable hygiene practices | Salmonella spp, Shigella spp, Campylobacter spp, hepatitis A, hepatitis E, amebic dysentery or liver abscess, eosinophilic meningitis |
- Did you have unpasteurized dairy, for example, home-made cheese?
| Unpasteurized dairy | Brucella, other, Listeria |
- Did you eat raw or undercooked foods?
| Undercooked meats | Campylobacter, Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, Toxoplasma, Trichinella |
Undercooked shellfish | Hepatitis A, Vibrios, Clonorchis, Paragonimus |
Raw vegetables, watercress | Fasciola |
- Did you have any insect bites such as mosquito bites?
| Mosquitoes | Malaria; many arboviruses, including dengue, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile virus, Rift Valley fever |
- Did you have any tick bites or go hiking or walk through tall grasses or woods?
| Ticks | Rickettsia (in travelers most commonly Rickettsia africae), Babesia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Lyme disease, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, tick-borne encephalitis |
- Did you notice any fleas or other vectors, or bugs, or were you around animals that might have had fleas or lice?
| Fleas | Rickettsia typhi (endemic typhus), Yersinia pestis |
Lice | Rickettsia prowazekii (epidemic typhus), Borrelia (relapsing fever) |
Mites | Orientia tsutsugamushi (scrub typhus) |
Sandflies | Leishmania |
Black flies | Onchocerca volvulus |
Triatomine bugs | American trypanosomiasis |
Tsetse flies | African trypanosomiasis |
- Were you in large gatherings?
| Air-borne particles, crowded living conditions | Influenza, measles, other respiratory infections |
- Did you participate in digging, excavating, or construction?
| Soil, excavations | Coccidioides imitis (coccidioidomycosis), Histoplasma capsulatum (histoplasmosis) |
- Did you swim, wade, or splash around in fresh water?
| Swimming in lakes, ponds, rivers, streams | Schistosoma, Leptospira |
- Did you have close contact with any animals? Any bites, scratches, or licks?
| Bites, spelunking | Rabies |
Handling animals | Brucella, anthrax, Yersinia pestis, Coxiella burnetti, Francisella tularensis, Toxoplasma |
Primates | Simian B virus |
Rodents | Yersinia pestis, hantaviruses, Lassa fever and other hemorrhagic fevers, rat-bite fever, Rickettsia typhi |
Birds | Chlamydophila psittaci, avian influenza |
- Did you have sexual contact or contact with blood, body fluids, secretions, or procedures that may expose you to these?
| Sexual contact; injections, transfusion, medical procedure, tattoos, piercings, dental work, shaving by barber with reused razor | Acute HIV; hepatitis A, B, C, D; CMV, EBV; syphilis; viral hemorrhagic fevers |
Immunization history |
- Have you had routine immunizations, and were they updated before travel?
| Verify immunity to these routine vaccines | MMR, polio, Td/Tdap, hepatitis B, influenza, chickenpox |
Age-specific recommendations | HPV, shingles, pneumococcal |
Asplenic host recommendations | Haemophilus influenzae b, meningococcal, pneumococcal |
- Have you had travel immunizations?
| – | Hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, meningococcal, polio, rabies, typhoid, yellow fever |