Methods: Records of travellers aged 60 years and older attending the Tropical Medical Bureau clinic in Galway, Ireland between 2014 and 2018 were examined. Descriptive and inferential.analysis of data was performed.
Results: A total of 337 older travellers sought pre-travel health advice during the study period. The mean age of the cohort was 65.42 (±10) years. Most of the travellers (n = 267, 80%) had at least one travelling companion. Nearly half of older travellers (n = 155, 46.8%) were travelling with a single companion. Tourism was the main reason for travel for the majority (n = 260, 77.6%), followed by visiting friends and relatives (VFR) (n = 23, 6.9%) travellers. The mean interval remaining before the planned trip was 4.36 (±2) weeks, and the mean duration of travel was 3.16 (±1) weeks. The most popular single country of destination was India with 33 (9.8%) visitors, and South East Asia was the most popular region with 132 (39.2%) older travellers. The majority of travellers (n = 267, 79.2%) had a documented pre-existing medical condition. The most commonly reported medical conditions were hypertension (n = 26, 7.7%), dyslipidaemia (n = 18, 5.3%), diabetes mellitus (n = 12, 3.5%), insect bite sensitivity (n = 11, 3.3%), and hypothyroidism (n = 9, 2.6%). Antihypertensive agents (n = 32, 9.4%) and statins (n = 24, 7.1%) were the most frequently used medications. Typhoid (n = 112, 33.2%) and hepatitis A (n = 84, 24.9%) were the most common vaccinations administered to older travellers at the clinic.
Conclusions: This study provides an insight into the demographics, travel characteristics, and medical profile of elderly travellers seeking advice at a large travel clinic in Ireland. A wide range of travel destinations, diseases and medication use was reported among this group of travellers, which may enable travel medicine physicians to provide more tailored advice and to more appropriately counsel older travellers.
METHODS: The study was conducted over a span of three years with a total of 8142, 8134, and 8114 blood culture samples processed for the years 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol was determined using an agar dilution method. The MIC for ciprofloxacin was also confirmed by Epsilon-test (E -test) strips.
RESULTS: Of the total 302 Salmonella spp. isolated, 257 were Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi (85.1%) and 45 (14.9%) were S. enterica serotype Paratyphi A. The majority of the isolates recovered were from the pediatric age group (54.6%) and males (60.6%). Complete susceptibility was observed to chloramphenicol, cefotaxime, ceftriaxone, and azithromycin over the last two years (2009 and 2010), with an increase in resistance to nalidixic acid (100%) and ciprofloxacin (13.6%).
CONCLUSION: In our study, we found augmentation of resistance to nalidixic acid and fluoroquinolones and complete sensitivity to ceftriaxone along with reemergence of chloramphenicol sensitivity for Salmonella isolates. This report emphasises the necessity of continuous surveillance of antibiograms of enteric fever isolates in an area.
METHODS: One hundred isolates of S. typhi in humans (50 MDR and 50 antibiotic-sensitive isolates) from sporadic cases of typhoid fever were analyzed by Vi-phage typing, antibiograms and PFGE.
RESULTS: The MDR S. typhi strains were resistant to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Analysis by PFGE showed that 50 MDR isolates of S. typhi had a single, homogenous PFGE profile, which was distinctly different from that of 50 antibiotic-sensitive isolates obtained in the same time frame from the same area. This latter group of isolates showed much greater diversity of PFGE profiles, as has been observed in other endemic regions.
CONCLUSIONS: Multidrug-resistant and antibiotic-susceptible strains of S. typhi can coexist in endemic areas as epidemiologically independent pathogens and are not in competition for continued persistence and transmission.