Traveller exposures to animals: a GeoSentinel analysis

Vaccine, 2007

Background: Increased travel to exotic destinations around the world is escalating the risk of exposure to animal-associated injuries with a risk of acquiring rabies. Methods: We have examined data reported to GeoSentinel Surveillance Network to highlight characteristics of animal-associated injuries in travellers.

PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2012

Background: Each year millions of travelers visit Southeast Asia where rabies is still prevalent. This study aimed to assess the risk of rabies exposure, i.e., by being bitten or licked by an animal, among travelers in Southeast Asia. The secondary objective was to assess their attitudes and practices related to rabies.

Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2015

Mammal Review, 2021

1. The COVID-19 outbreak is having an unprecedented effect on human society, but how is it affecting the mammals that people live with? Mammals that were part of tourism experiences are of concern, because they impact on people's health and livelihoods and, since many of them are now dependent on people, we urge consideration of the status of these mammals as a result of the pandemic. 2. We provide a systematic review of the impacts the COVID-19 outbreak has had on mammals in tourism venues. We examine reports of diverse species in various settings responding to changes in their environments that are occurring because of the pandemic. 3. We searched the scholarly literature, preprints, and online news sources using combinations of the search terms 'tourism', 'animals', 'wildlife', 'coronavirus', and 'COVID-19'. We searched Web of Science, SCOPUS, EBSCOHost, JSTOR, bioRxiv, OSFPREPRINTS, GDELT, Google News, and National Public Radio, and analysed a total of 39 news articles, one peer-reviewed article, and six preprints. 4. In total, we identified 92 distinct animal reports representing 48 mammal species. We used an existing tourism classification schema to categorise each article based on the situation reported, with the new addition of one context. We classified 92 separate animal reports in 46 articles into four (of six possible) contexts: mammals as attractions (n = 40 animal reports), mammals as commodities (n = 33), mammals as threats (n = 2), and unusual sightings of mammals (n = 17). Shortage of food, in danger of losing home, having an enriched/relaxed environment, spatial expansion, disease transmission, and poaching are the major impacts or events reported in these contexts. 5. We suggest changes for each context with respect to how people interface with mammals, with the goal of improving the lives of mammals and the people dependent on them.

Annals of Clinical and Analytical Medicine

Aim: This study evaluated applications due to contact with animals that occurred in a metropolitan city center and a rural district center and aimed to compare patients' demographic and medical conditions in order to determine the risk factors for animal attacks. Material and Methods: This study was conducted retrospectively and was multicenter. Patients who had been attacked by cats, dogs, and other animals (horses, cows, donkeys) and therefore admitted to the emergency department for the first time were included in this study. The obtained data from the city center and the district center were compared. Results: In the comparison of the data from the two centers, the findings showed that while the rate of female patients (52.69%) was higher in the city center, the majority of the patients who applied to the emergency department in the district center were male (69.92%) (p<0.00). It was observed that lower extremity injuries (35.91%) were more common in the city center in terms of the injured area, and biting injuries were higher (64.09%) regarding injury type. Discussion: As in our country, in countries where the number of stray animals is high, animal vaccinations cannot be administered fully and adequately. Algorithms have been developed to create a common approach to animal bites in our country. However, different approaches and treatment protocols can be encountered in the world. These differences may be due to geographical, sociocultural, and socioeconomic reasons. Therefore, regarding animal contact identifying at-risk groups may contribute to reducing animal attacks. In this study, to our knowledge, for the first time, the risk factors for exposure to animal attacks in rural and urban areas were investigated in the literature.

International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2010

Little data exist about the spatial distribution of the risk for travelers of being injured by a potentially rabid animal. Methods: Over the last 14 years, animal-associated injuries in 424 international travelers presenting to a travel medicine clinic in Marseille, southern France, were investigated. Results: The majority of cases were reported from North Africa (41.5%) and Asia (22.2%). Most countries where at-risk injuries occurred (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Thailand, and Turkey) were those for which travelers do not usually seek advice at a specialized travel clinic, because these countries are not at risk for specific travel-associated diseases like malaria or yellow fever. The probability of travelers being attacked by each animal species varied significantly according to the destination country. Dogs were more frequently involved in Algeria, cats in Tunisia and the Middle East, and non-human primates in sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, and Asia. Conclusions: We suggest that rabies pre-exposure vaccination should be offered to individuals traveling regularly to North Africa to visit their relatives and who are at high risk of exposure to potentially rabid animal attacks. Pre-travel advice when addressing rabies prevention should consider the specific epidemiology of animal-related injuries in the traveled country, as well as the traveler's characteristics. Travelers should be advised about which species of animal are potentially aggressive in their destination country so that they can more easily avoid risk-contacts. ß

Journal of Travel Medicine, 2009

Journal of Travel Medicine, 2007

O f the approximate 50 million residents of industrialized nations who travel to the developing world each year, 20% to 70% will report a travel-related illness, 1,2 and up to 8% will seek medical attention upon returning home or while abroad. 2,3 Of those seeking medical attention during travel, up to 10% will require medical evacuation, 3 and 1% in 100,000 will ultimately die of a travel-related illness. Adventure travel, which is both the newest and the fastest-growing sector of the tourism industry, generally involves physical exertion in an unusual, exotic, or wilderness setting. 4 This form of travel inherently places visitors at risk for various environmental illnesses and injuries, 4,5 including highaltitude illness, which describes the mild-to-severe cerebral and pulmonary sequela that can develop in Background . Adventure travel necessarily places travelers at risk of environmental hazards. We assessed the burden of " environmental " hazards among a cohort of travelers and expatriates presenting to a large travel clinic in Nepal. Methods . Data on travelers and expatriates seen at the Canadian International Water and Energy Consultants (CIWEC) clinic in Kathmandu were prospectively collected and entered into the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network database. Data on individuals receiving predefi ned diagnoses related to environmental hazards were extracted and analyzed. Results . Of 10,499 travelers and 4,854 expatriates in the database, 2,160 were diagnosed with 2,533 environmentrelated illnesses. Injuries were common among both travelers and expatriates [ N = 788 (6.1%) and 328 (4.9%), respectively], while altitude illness was seen almost exclusively in travelers [ N = 611 (4.7%) vs N = 8 (0.1%)]. Factors independently associated with environmental diagnoses include male gender ( p < 0.001), traveling for tourism ( p < 0.001), and lack of pre-travel advice ( p = 0.043). Three percent of travelers and 2% of expatriates presenting to CIWEC sustained a bite wound or required rabies postexposure prophylaxis. Injured travelers were less likely than others to have obtained pre-travel advice ( p = 0.003), while those who sustained bite wounds were more likely to have received pre-travel advice ( p < 0.001). Conclusions . Environmental hazards are important causes of morbidity and potential mortality among adventure travelers and expatriates. Current pre-travel interventions are missing certain risk groups entirely and failing to have the desired educational impact in others.

Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 2012

A variety of exotic vertebrate and invertebrate species are kept as ‘pets’ including fishes, amphibians (for example, frogs and toads), reptiles (turtles, crocodiles, lizards and snakes), birds, mammals (for example, primates, civets, and lions), and invertebrates (for example spiders, scorpions, and centipedes), and ownership of some of these animals is rising. Data for 2009–2011 suggest that the number of homes with reptiles rose by approximately 12.5%. Recent surveys, including only some of these animals, indicated that they might be present in around 18.6% of homes (equal to approximately 42 million animals of which around 40 million are indoor or outdoor fish). Many exotic ‘pets’ are capable of causing injury or poisoning to their keepers and some contacts prove fatal. We examined NHS Health Episode Statistics for England using selected formal categories for hospital admissions and bed days for 2004–2010 using the following categories of injury, envenomation or sting; bitten or...