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Objectives: To give a detailed risk estimate of contracting travel-associated shigellosis in various regions of the world., Methods: Data on notifications of travel-associated shigellosis in Sweden 1997-2003 were compared with information on recent travel abroad from a comprehensive database based on telephone interviews with more than 160,000 Swedish travellers., Results: From the national notification database 2678 patients with travel-associated shigellosis were retrieved. The highest risk of being notified with shigellosis was seen in returning travellers from India and neighbouring countries (318/100,000 travellers), East Africa (219/100,000), West Africa (120/100,000), and North Africa (76/100,000). Data on serogroup was available for 2529 isolates. Shigella sonnei was the most common serogroup (67%), followed by Shigella flexneri (26%), Shigella boydii (5%), and Shigella dysenteriae (3%). A higher risk was seen in children below the age of six, compared to older children and adults and in women compared to men. A distinct seasonal pattern was noted with the highest risk of shigellosis in July-October and the lowest in May., Conclusions: Denominator based data on reported travel-associated infections are well suited to give risk estimates per region of infection, that could be used to target high-risk groups for pre-travel advice.

Background: The epidemiology of travel-associated campylobacteriosis is still largely unclear, and various known risk factors could only explain limited proportions of the recorded cases., Methods: Using data from 28,704 notifications of travel-associated campylobacteriosis in Sweden 1997 to 2003 and travel patterns of 16,255 Swedish residents with overnight travel abroad in the same years, we analysed risks for travel-associated campylobacteriosis in 19 regions of the world, and looked into the seasonality of the disease in each of these regions., Results: The highest risk was seen in returning travellers from the Indian subcontinent (1,253/100,000 travellers), and the lowest in travellers from the other Nordic countries (3/100,000 travellers). In Africa, large differences in risk between regions were noted, with 502 /100,000 in travellers from East Africa, compared to 76/100,00 from West Africa and 50/100,000 from Central Africa. A distinct seasonal pattern was seen in all temperate regions with peaks in the summer, while no or less distinct seasonality was seen in tropical regions. In travellers to the tropics, the highest risk was seen in children below the age of six., Conclusions: Data on infections in returning travellers together with good denominator data could provide comparable data on travel risks in various regions of the world.