Destinations were classified according to the visited continent (America including Caribbean, Asia, Tanespimycin Africa, Oceania). We prospectively included all returning travelers consulting our department between November 2002 and May 2003 for health problems and investigated those presenting fever within 3 months after return

from a tropical country. We then conducted a case control study to identify factors predictive of malaria. Control group was defined as febrile travelers without malaria. Results. A total of 272 febrile travelers were included. They were 152 tourists (55.9%), 58 immigrants (21.3%), 33 expatriates (12.1%), and 29 business travelers (10.7%). Besides malaria (54 cases), the main diagnosis in the 218 controls were bacterial enteritis, bacterial pneumonia, infectious cellulitis, pyelonephritis, prostatis, dengue fever, primary viral infection (HIV, EBV, CMV, parvovirus B19), and tuberculosis. Multivariate Selleck AZD3965 regression analysis showed correlations between malaria and travel to Africa (OR = 11.9),

abdominal pain (OR = 14.1), vomiting (OR = 19.4), myalgia (OR = 6.3), inadequate prophylaxis (OR = 10.1), and platelets <150,000/µL (OR = 25.2). Conclusions. Our results suggest that no single clinical or biological feature had both good sensitivity and specificity to predict malaria in febrile travelers seen as outpatients within 3 months after returning from the tropics. Fever is one of the main causes of consultation in persons returning from the tropics. Of the 50 million persons traveling in developing countries,1 8% to 19% need medical support after return and 3% to 11% are febrile.2–5 Malaria is one of the leading causes of fever in returning travelers, with gastrointestinal, respiratory tract, and skin infections.6–8 Indeed, of

Carbohydrate 24,920 febrile returning travelers seen from March 1997 to March 2006 in Geosentinel clinics around the world, malaria accounted for 21% of the causes of fever.9 Similarly, malaria accounted for 11.8% to 42% of the causes of hospital’s admissions in febrile travelers in various countries.5,7,10–12 Besides its frequency, malaria remains the first diagnosis to suspect in febrile-exposed travelers, because of its potential rapid fatal outcome.5,13 The lethality of imported malaria has been estimated about 0.3% in Canada14 and 0.44% in France.15 Prior predictive factors for malaria have been identified in particular populations such as hospitalized children10,11 or adults in endemic areas14 or in returning travelers selected by the demand of blood smear.13,16,17 To the best of our knowledge, no study focused on febrile outpatients. We investigated the patients consulting our tropical disease unit for fever after returning from a tropical country and analyzed the reasons why they consulted our unit. We then evaluated the epidemiological, clinical, and biological variables predictive of imported malaria.