Travel-related infections notified in England

Vaccinations are generally the focus of a pretravel visit to a health professional. They are important and visible, but they shouldn’t distract from other common health issues.

A recent study on travel-related illnesses by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has identified gastrointestinal infections as the most common cause of major health problems (notifiable diseases) in returned travellers.

These findings underline the need for a more balanced pre-travel consultation - one that not only considers vaccine-preventable diseases but also addresses hygiene, food and water precautions and destination specific risks.

Inside the UKHSA Report

Researchers looked at selected notifiable infectious diseases for the period, January 2022 through to December 2024. Year-to-year comparisons were made with a specific focus on 2024. This is an important report for providers of travel health advice. It helps to better target health information for a specific location.

Five categories were investigated. They included gastrointestinal infections (GIT), enteric fever (typhoid and paratyphoid), hepatitis A, measles and “other” travel-associated infections.

Gastrointestinal infections included those due to:

• Campylobacter
• E. coli (including Shiga toxin-producing strains)
• Shigella
• Salmonella
• Cryptosporidium
• Giardia
• “Other” - where there wasn’t a laboratory diagnosis

Gastrointestinal infections most frequently notified

Two thousand seven hundred and three travel-related GIT infections were reported for the 12- month period during 2024. These numbers do not include the large number of cases of “traveller’s diarrhoea” which would have settled without the need to see a health professional.

Country of travel was included in the report - those with the highest numbers of gastrointestinal infections included Turkey, Spain, India, Egypt, Pakistan and Morocco but the report did not account for the total visitations to the destination.

Infections were mostly associated with travel during the summer months, peaking in late September.

Gastrointestinal infections can have a major impact on an overseas trip whether it be for recreation or business. Attention to the rules of eating and drinking safely is particularly important when travelling to those countries where the risk is high.

For more information see Traveller’s Diarrhoea (TD).

Vaccine-preventable diseases still matter

Typhoid and paratyphoid were included under enteric fever. There were 463 enteric fever (typhoid/ paratyphoid) notifications with more than 90% coming from individuals who had travelled to either India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. While there is no vaccine for paratyphoid, many of the typhoid cases might have been prevented by vaccination.

Other vaccine preventable disease included Hepatitis A with 217 cases and 146 for measles. Over sixty percent cases of hepatitis A came from five countries (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan Bangladesh and Egypt).

A note on Hepatitis A and Measles

It is interesting to note that hepatitis A vaccination is freely available from general practice under the NHS if the individual is likely to have a high risk of exposure. Surely this suggests it should be a childhood vaccination. Romania was the main source of measles cases.

Further reading

The full report can be viewed at UK Health Security Agency: Travel-associated infections in England - 2022, 2023 and 2024 (Regional analysis).