5 key points on fever in international travellers (clinical problem)

• a travel history should be obtained from anyone with a febrile illness
• malaria should be excluded in anyone with a fever who has been in a malaria-endemic area recently
• then consider dengue & other arbovirus infections if there has been mosquito exposure
• do not forget the neglected bacterial tropical infections: enteric fever, leptospirosis, scrub typhus & melioidosis
• do not forget to ask about potential risk for sexually-transmitted infections & HIV/AIDS

No. Just for once this isn’t about mapping a microbial genome. This is where you can find some disease distribution maps for the infections we’ve already covered on the road to the FACTM pt 1 exam.

Try these out for size, making note of your answers as you go.

Download (PDF, 581.04KB)

The correct answers can be found via these links:

• neglected bacterial infections
• arbovirus infections

Happy hunting.

The μGnome got out his set of paintbrushes today to refresh a set of disease maps for the forthcoming tropical medicine breakfast session at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

Gone are the neat little red outlines carefully added to world map outlines. This is the genuine graffiti version in block colour – world distribution of scrub typhus and melioidosis, as of May, 2010.

The stand-alone maps will appear on the Priobe Net shortly.

Download (PDF, 618.35KB)

What’s the connection between Ena Sharples; the hairnet helmeted doyenne of Coronation St and tropical medicine? Coronation St afficionados would be hard pressed to place the sullen rows of back-to-back brick terraces with the humid tropics.

The explanation will be unveiled during next Tuesday’s tropical medicine breakfast in the Emergency Department seminar room at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

You may glean a shrew idea if you take a look at the lecture notes before Tuesday.

Download (PDF, 830.79KB)

For those following the FACTM pt 1 series, the next instalment is just around the corner, if you’re planning your diary for next week. The face-to-face session will take place at the later time of  7:30am next Tuesday (25th May) in the ED seminar room at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and will run for an hour in its usual two topic format.

Next week’s session is open to junior medical staff and there will be a light breakfast as usual. The MicroGnome apologises for not having the unit notes ready in time for this post, owing to an encounter with arboviruses in Queensland earlier this week. He assures you that the lecture material will meet the usual standard, and was inspired by recent fieldwork in tropical Australia.

Tuesday’s units will cover Leptospirosis, Melioidosis and Scrub Typhus; three infections prevalent in the Australian tropics. Reading for this unit includes:

• Leptospirosis – Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine p694
• Manson’s Tropical Diseases p1161 ff;
• Melioidosis – Oxford Handbook p700, Manson p1127 ff
• Scrub Typhus – Oxford Handbook p687, Manson p 885 ff.