Infectious diseases and tropical medicine

This chapter covers the approach to fever in the returning traveller, including how to take a detailed travel history and the importance of taking a sexual history from the patient. The chapter discusses common causes of infectious disease in returning travellers, including typhoid and malaria. The lifecycle of the <italic>Plasmodium</italic> parasite is explained, signs and symptoms of malaria are discussed, along with diagnostic tests and treatment for both uncomplicated and complicated falciparum malaria. Viral haemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola are discussed and disease control and public health measures are emphasized. Parasitic infections are covered, including amoebiasis, soil-transmitted helminths (which affect an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide), and schistosomiasis. Dengue, another mosquito-borne disease, is discussed. The chapter also outlines the differing presentations of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Influenza, traveller’s diarrhoea, measles, polio, tetanus, Epstein–Barr virus and rabies are also covered.