The impact of domestic travel on estimating regional rates of human campylobacteriosis

Abstract

Residential locations of cases are often used as proxy measures for the likely place of exposure and this assumption may result in biases affecting both surveillance and epidemiological studies. This study aimed to describe the importance of domestic travel in cases of human campylobacteriosis reported during routine surveillance in Iceland from 2001 to 2005. Various measures of disease frequency were calculated based upon the cases' region of residence, adjusting location of domestic travel cases to their travel region, as well as separate estimations for travellers and non-travellers. Of the 376 cases included in the analysis, 37% had travelled domestically during their incubation period. Five of the eight regions were identified as high-risk when considering domestic travel whereas there were no high-risk regions when considering only region of residence. The change in regional representation of disease occurrence indicates the importance of collecting domestic travel information in ongoing surveillance activities.

Global Epidemiology of Campylobacter Infection

“…Similar levels have been reported in the United States, with 18% of Campylobacter infections being estimated to be associated with international travel (296). Domestic travel also plays a role in the transmission of human campylobacteriosis (297). In Europe, the proportion of diarrhea cases caused by Campylobacter species detected in travelers increased from 7% in 2008 to 12% in 2010 (298).…”