Imported schistosomiasis in Europe: sentinel surveillance data from TropNetEurop.

BACKGROUND Schistosomiasis is a major parasitic disease, increasingly imported into temperate climates by immigrants from and travelers to endemic areas. METHOD To generate valid data on imported infectious diseases to Europe and to recognize trends over time, the European Network on Imported Infectious Diseases Surveillance (TropNetEurop) was founded in 1999. Three hundred and thirty-three reports of schistosomiasis were analyzed for epidemiologic and clinical features. RESULTS Male patients accounted for 64% of all cases. The average age of all patients was 29.5 years. The majority of patients were of European origin (53%). Europeans traveled predominantly for tourism (52%). Main reasons for travel for people from endemic areas were immigration and refuge (51%) and visits to relatives and friends (28%). The majority of infections were acquired in Africa; 92 infections were clearly attributable to Schistosoma haematobium, 130 to Schistosoma mansoni, and 4 to Schistosoma intercalatum. Praziquantel was the only treatment used. No deaths were recorded. CONCLUSION TropNetEurop sentinel provides valuable epidemiologic and clinical data on imported schistosomiasis to Europe.

[1]  Yang Hl.  Female genital schistosomiasis and tubal pregnancy , 1984 .

[2]  G R Istre,et al.  Acute schistosomiasis among Americans rafting the Omo River, Ethiopia. , 1984, JAMA.

[3]  Robert E. Scully,et al.  Case 21-1985 , 1985 .

[4]  J. Tosswill,et al.  An evaluation of the ELISA for schistosomiasis in a hospital population. , 1986, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

[5]  C. King,et al.  Drugs five years later: praziquantel. , 1989, Annals of internal medicine.

[6]  R. Scully,et al.  Case records of the Massachusetts General Hospital. , 1990 .

[7]  J. Gascón,et al.  Schistosomiasis and the Dogon country (Mali) , 1992, The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene.

[8]  R. Pollok,et al.  Early chemotherapy of imported neuroschistosomiasis , 1993, The Lancet.

[9]  R. Furth,et al.  Survival in selected patients with gram-negative sepsis after adjunctive therapy with HA-1 A , 1993, The Lancet.

[10]  L. Visser,et al.  Outbreak of schistosomiasis among travelers returning from Mali, West Africa. , 1995, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[11]  Verstraeten,et al.  Acute Schistosomiasis in Travelers Returning From Mali. , 1995, Journal of travel medicine.

[12]  Abel,et al.  Schistosomiasis Acquired in Lake Malawi. , 1996, Journal of travel medicine.

[13]  Landry,et al.  Genital Schistosomiasis After a Missed Diagnosis of Katayama Syndrome. , 1996, Journal of travel medicine.

[14]  H. Nothdurft,et al.  Schistosomiasis in Travelers and Expatriates. , 1996, Journal of travel medicine.

[15]  B. Biggs,et al.  Schistosomiasis in Australian travellers to Africa , 1997 .

[16]  M. Doenhoff,et al.  Diagnosis of schistosomiasis: antibody detection, with notes on parasitological and antigen detection methods , 1999, Parasitology.

[17]  F. Gleeson,et al.  Acute pulmonary schistosomiasis in travelers returning from Lake Malawi, sub-Saharan Africa. , 1999, Clinical Infectious Diseases.

[18]  M. Armstrong,et al.  Presentation and outcome of 1107 cases of schistosomiasis from Africa diagnosed in a non-endemic country. , 2000, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

[19]  T. Jelínek,et al.  Falciparum malaria in European tourists to the Dominican Republic. , 2000, Emerging infectious diseases.

[20]  N. Squires.  Interventions for treating schistosomiasis haematobium. , 1997, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[21]  M. Perelman,et al.  Pulmonary manifestations of early schistosome infection among nonimmune travelers. , 2000, The American journal of medicine.

[22]  H. Saconato,et al.  Interventions for treating schistosomiasis mansoni. , 1999, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[23]  E. Reisinger,et al.  Schistosomiasis and travel medicine. , 2000, European journal of medical research.

[24]  D. Murdoch,et al.  Female genital schistosomiasis. , 2006, Journal of travel medicine.

[25]  M. Armstrong,et al.  Utility of history, examination and laboratory tests in screening those returning to Europe from the tropics for parasitic infection , 2000, Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH.

[26]  K. Bichler,et al.  Schistosomiasis: a critical review , 2001, Current opinion in urology.

[27]  N. Mühlberger,et al.  Epidemiology and clinical features of imported dengue fever in Europe: sentinel surveillance data from TropNetEurop. , 2002, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[28]  R. López-Vélez,et al.  Imported Falciparum malaria in Europe: sentinel surveillance data from the European network on surveillance of imported infectious diseases. , 2002, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[29]  Gail M. Williams,et al.  Current concepts - Schistosomiasis , 2002 .