Stomach bugs, dengue top list of illnesses in travelers returning to Estonia
The Health Board has released its figures for infectious diseases brought back by travelers for the first 11 months, showing that five infections are by far the most common dubious "souvenirs" for people returning from abroad.
Rotavirus, camphylobacter and salmonella, which affect the gastrointestinal system, were the most frequent illnesses, with 18, 17 and 15 cases, respectively, according to the statistics released this week.
While Estonia had no Ebola cases, of course, a case of malaria was contracted in the same area of Western Africa affected by the supervirus.
Only three cases of malaria were brought back to Estonia - a case of the more serious vivax from India and the other two from Sierra Leone and Ghana.
But dengue fever - an increasing problem throughout tropical zones - amounted to nine cases, all from southeast Asia and tropical Australia, with four from Indonesia.
Lyme disease was also prominent - the fifth-most common disease brought back to Estonia. The eight infections by this tick-borne bacterium were contracted in the UK, South Africa, and Russia and several countries in Estonia's region.
Many of the bugs, including the food poisoning and STDs, were fairly evenly "sourced" from tropical Asia, southeastern Europe and the Middle East.
Editor: K. Rikken
