Trends and characteristics among HIV-infected and diabetic travelers seeking pre-travel advice

Abstract

The number of individuals with a chronic disease increases. Better treatment options have improved chronic patients' quality of life, likely increasing their motivation for travel. This may have resulted in a change in the number of HIV-infected travelers and/or travelers with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) visiting our travel clinic. We retrospectively analyzed the database of the travel clinic of the Public Health Service Amsterdam, between January 2001 and December 2011 and examined the records for patients with these conditions. Of the 25,000 travelers who consult our clinic annually, the proportion of travelers with HIV or DM has increased significantly. A total of 564 HIV-infected travelers visited our clinic. The mean age was 41 years, 86% were male, 43% visited a yellow fever endemic country and 46.5% had a CD4 count <500 cells/mm(3). Travelers with low CD4 counts traveled significantly more often to visit friends or relatives. A total of 3704 diabetics visited our clinic. The mean age was 55 years, 52% were male, 27% visited a yellow fever endemic country and 36% were insulin-dependent. Insulin-dependent diabetics traveled more often for work than non-insulin-dependent diabetics. Adequately trained and qualified travel health professionals and up-to-date guidelines for travelers with chronic diseases are of increasing importance.