Travel-acquired infections and illnesses in British Columbians: Surveillance report from CanTravNet surveillance data, 2009-2018

Background: Previous studies have described travel-related infections among Canadians; however, a provincial-level analysis of British Columbians has not been published. Methods: We extracted and analyzed data from the Canadian Travel Medicine Network database for returning ill British Columbian travelers who presented to a GeoSentinel surveillance network site between March 2009 and September 2018. Results: In total, 1153 ill travelers were assigned travel-related diagnoses; of those, 37% (n = 426) required inpatient management. The most common diagnoses (n = 1494) were tuberculosis (n = 174, 12%), malaria (n = 89, 6%), and enteric fever (n = 81, 5%). British Columbians who traveled to visit friends and relatives were disproportionally represented among travelers diagnosed with malaria (n = 35/89, 39%) and enteric fever (n = 69/81, 85%). Conclusions: International travel introduces British Columbia residents to risk of communicable, preventable, and potentially life-threatening infectious diseases, which could be mitigated by promoting pretravel consultation.