Journal of travel medicine
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Over half of malaria cases reported in the USA occur among people travelling to visit friends and relatives (VFRs), predominantly to West Africa. Few studies have queried VFR travellers directly on barriers to seeking pre-travel care. We aim to describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of VFRs travelling to malaria-endemic countries from the USA. With these findings, we aim to design interventions to encourage preventive behaviours before and during travel. ⋯ Barriers to pre-travel care for VFR travellers are multifaceted and extend beyond their perception of disease risk. Only some barriers previously reported in anecdotal and qualitative literature were supported in our findings. Future interventions should be aimed at barriers identified by individual communities and involve primary and travel specialist healthcare providers. Additional work is needed to address systems-level barriers to accessing care and establishing community-based programs to support West African VFR traveller health.
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While the worldwide endemicity of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) has been increasing, a lack of awareness of the risks of this life-threatening disease may be leading to an underutilization of preventive measures among travellers to TBE-endemic regions. This study's objectives were to assess travellers' awareness of TBE and advice-seeking attitudes, and to evaluate practices of travel clinics regarding pre-travel advice. ⋯ There is a need to increase awareness of the risk and prevention of TBE among travellers to endemic countries, and travel clinics could play an important role in this process. 5975671594001tay062media15975671594001.