• Alexandre Duvignaud, Rhett J Stoney, Kristina M Angelo, Lin H Chen, Paolo Cattaneo, Leonardo Motta, Federico G Gobbi, Emmanuel Bottieau, Daniel L Bourque, Corneliu P Popescu, Hedvig Glans, Hilmir Asgeirsson, Ines Oliveira-Souto, Stephen D Vaughan, Bhawana Amatya, Francesca F Norman, Jesse Waggoner, Marta Díaz-Menéndez, Michael Beadsworth, Silvia Odolini, Daniel Camprubí-Ferrer, Loic Epelboin, Bradley A Connor, Gilles Eperon, Eli Schwartz, Michael Libman, Denis Malvy, Davidson H Hamer, Ralph Huits, and GeoSentinel Network.
• Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Division of Tropical Medicine and Clinical International Health, Hôpital Pellegrin, CHU Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
• J Travel Med. 2024 Oct 19; 31 (7).

BackgroundDengue is a leading cause of febrile illness among international travellers. We aimed to describe the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of imported dengue in returning travellers evaluated at GeoSentinel sites from 2007 to 2022.MethodsWe retrieved GeoSentinel records of dengue among travellers residing in non-endemic countries. We considered dengue confirmed when diagnosed by a positive dengue virus (DENV)-specific reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, positive NS-1 antigen and/or anti-DENV IgG seroconversion, and probable when diagnosed by single anti-DENV IgM or high-titre anti-DENV IgG detection. Severe dengue was defined as evidence of clinically significant plasma leakage or bleeding, organ failure, or shock, according to the 2009 World Health Organization guidance. Complicated dengue was defined as either severe dengue or dengue with presence of any warning sign. Analyses were descriptive.ResultsThis analysis included 5958 travellers with confirmed (n = 4859; 81.6%) or probable (n = 1099; 18.4%) dengue. The median age was 33 years (range: <1-91); 3007 (50.5%) travellers were female. The median travel duration was 21 days (interquartile range [IQR]: 15-32). The median time between illness onset and GeoSentinel site visit was 7 days (IQR: 4-15). The most frequent reasons for travel were tourism (67.3%), visiting friends or relatives (12.2%) and business (11.0%). The most frequent regions of acquisition were South East Asia (50.4%), South Central Asia (14.9%), the Caribbean (10.9%) and South America (9.2%). Ninety-five (1.6%) travellers had complicated dengue, of whom 27 (0.5%) had severe dengue and one died. Of 2710 travellers with data available, 724 (26.7%) were hospitalized. The largest number of cases (n = 835) was reported in 2019.ConclusionsA broad range of international travellers should be aware of the risk of acquiring dengue and receive appropriate pre-travel counselling regarding preventive measures. Prospective cohort studies are needed to further elucidate dengue risk by destination and over time, as well as severe outcomes and prolonged morbidity (long dengue) due to travel-related dengue.Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Society of Travel Medicine 2024.

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