31st July 2023

Traveller and Migrant Health

Viral infections are often associated with travelling and migration. This is because these activities can spread disease between different populations, and people from different countries can bring infections not commonly seen in others into a population with a low level of immunity.

Multiple viral outbreaks have had international travel as a contributing factor, with COVID-19, Ebola, Zika and avian flu all recent examples.

HIV is a continued and critical global public health problem, with over 30 million people living with HIV worldwide, and up to half of those estimated to not be aware of their HIV status. Therefore, continual HIV surveillance and expansion of diagnostic and care facilities is critical – not just for HIV but also for diseases that tend to co-exist alongside it. In tropical areas, that often includes tuberculosis and HSV-2.

There will always be exposure to viruses during tropical travel. At the MRCP level, it is especially important to remember viral infections transmitted by mosquitoes – which are highlighted in the table below – as these are frequent question topics.

More information about other important viral infections can be found in the HIV and Infections in Immunocompromised Hosts topic, and other types of infections relevant to traveller and migrant health are also covered in the Parasitic Infections, Fungal Infections and Bacterial Infections topics.

Table 2: Common mosquito-borne viruses for MRCP. The ‘FAR’ Syndrome of fever, arthralgia and rash is a typical presentation