Intestinal infections and sexually transmitted diseases are the most common infectious diseases that travelers from Norway incurred abroad, a new report from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) revealed.
According to the report, intestinal infections generated 82 percent of 2926 cases reported in 2011. Campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis were mainly-found infections.
Spain, Turkey and Thailand were the countries where most cases were believed to be infected from with more than 300 cases each. They are among the most popular destinations for Norwegians.
The most common of the sexually transmitted diseases is gonorrhea with 120 cases found, followed by HIV infection (41 cases) and syphilis (13 cases).
Heterosexual men mostly were infected in Southeast Asia (particularly Thailand), while gay men usually infected in Europe (especially Spain and Germany).
Norwegian travelers also incurred rare traditional tropical diseases as 21 cases of malaria and 16 cases of dengue fever were found.
The researchers also noted that persons of foreign origin who have been visiting relatives or friends in the former homelands are significantly over-represented in terms of diseases, hepatitis A, malaria, shigellosis, typhoid and paratyphoid.
In 2011, approximately 8,131,000 foreign traveling were made from Norway. Despite the high travel activity, Norwegians rarely become infected with a serious communicable disease during their travel period, writes NIPH.
In recent years there has been a slight decrease in the reported cases while the number of foreign travels continue to rise. It is unclear whether the result is due to better prevention knowledge of travelers or a reduced risk of incurring a serious communicable disease in tourist’s destinations, the report stated.
Source: Aftenposten.no
