Infection Tracking in Travellers. The Project Aims to Identify Profiles of Travel-associated Illness and to Follow up on Long-term Sequelae of Arboviral Infections and Malaria

NCT04672577 | Unknown DMC

• 1 other identifier: ITIT
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 10,000
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The investigators hypothesize that sex, age, area of exposure and purpose of travel are associated with different travel-related infections. The investigators also hypothesize that certain infections will have long-term sequelae. Health-data will be collected from travellers from Switzerland and Europe. The project starts with a pilot study for 50 travellers, followed by the recruiting of 10,000 travellers. The data collection will be via a mobile App (ITIT). The ITIT App will collect active data from travellers. The participants will download the App after signing an electronic consent form and completing a baseline questionnaire. Then the travellers will answer a short daily questionnaire about illness symptoms during travel. The ITIT App will also collect passive data (GPS localisation, environmental and weather data). The project will provide real-time data on travel-related infections and profile travel illness by age, sex and purpose of travel and also identify outbreaks.

Conditions

Travel-Related Illness; Malaria; Dengue; Chikungunya; Zika; SARS-CoV Infection; MERS; Influenza; Diarrhea

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• incidence of travel-related infectious diseases

  The Likert scale, self-rating of severity is the unit used to evaluate infectious disease symptoms based on 4 health domains (gastrointestinal symptoms, respiratory symptoms, skin infections and rashes, fever, pain and myalgia) combined with the number of travellers reporting symptoms to get the incidence (travelers with illnesses per 100 travellers).

  8 weeks

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• long-term sequelae of arboviral infections and malaria

  1 year

• change in epidemiology of travel-related infectious diseases

  1 year

Study Arms (1)

Arboviral infection or malaria positive cohort

Other: Observational study

Interventions

Observational study OTHER

No intervention is planned

Arboviral infection or malaria positive cohort

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 90 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

International travellers who cross international borders and are traveling for varying purposes such as business/corporate travellers, those visiting friends and relatives (VFR), leisure/tourist travellers and mass gathering events (Hajj, Olympics, World Cup) attendees.

You may qualify if:

• travellers who cross international borders
• adults (over 18 years old)
• those traveling for more than 2 days and less than 8 weeks

You may not qualify if:

• Non travellers (not crossing international borders)
• Minors (under 18 years old)
• those traveling for less than 2 days and longer than 8 weeks

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Patricia Schlagenhauf: lead
• ETH Zurich: collaborator
• Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute: collaborator
• University Hospital, Geneva: collaborator
• Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisante), University of Lausanne, Switzerland: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute at the University of Zurich

Zurich, 8001, Switzerland

Location

Related Publications (9)

• Farnham A, Blanke U, Stone E, Puhan MA, Hatz C. Travel medicine and mHealth technology: a study using smartphones to collect health data during travel. J Travel Med. 2016 Sep 4;23(6):taw056. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taw056. Print 2016 Jun.

  PMID: 27592821 BACKGROUND

• Findlater A, Moineddin R, Kain D, Yang J, Wang X, Lai S, Khan K, Bogoch II. The use of air travel data for predicting dengue importation to China: A modelling study. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2019 Sep-Oct;31:101446. doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2019.07.002. Epub 2019 Jul 5.

  PMID: 31284067 BACKGROUND

• Leta S, Beyene TJ, De Clercq EM, Amenu K, Kraemer MUG, Revie CW. Global risk mapping for major diseases transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Int J Infect Dis. 2018 Feb;67:25-35. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2017.11.026. Epub 2017 Nov 28.

  PMID: 29196275 BACKGROUND

• Ponce C, Dolea C. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Travel and Health: New collaborative, evidence-based and digital directions. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2019 Jan-Feb;27:1. doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2019.01.012. Epub 2019 Jan 17. No abstract available.

  PMID: 30660556 BACKGROUND

• Schlagenhauf P, Chen LH, Wilson ME, Freedman DO, Tcheng D, Schwartz E, Pandey P, Weber R, Nadal D, Berger C, von Sonnenburg F, Keystone J, Leder K; GeoSentinel Surveillance Network. Sex and gender differences in travel-associated disease. Clin Infect Dis. 2010 Mar 15;50(6):826-32. doi: 10.1086/650575.

  PMID: 20156059 BACKGROUND

• Schlagenhauf P, Tschopp A, Johnson R, Nothdurft HD, Beck B, Schwartz E, Herold M, Krebs B, Veit O, Allwinn R, Steffen R. Tolerability of malaria chemoprophylaxis in non-immune travellers to sub-Saharan Africa: multicentre, randomised, double blind, four arm study. BMJ. 2003 Nov 8;327(7423):1078. doi: 10.1136/bmj.327.7423.1078.

  PMID: 14604928 BACKGROUND

• Tomasello D, Schlagenhauf P. Chikungunya and dengue autochthonous cases in Europe, 2007-2012. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2013 Sep-Oct;11(5):274-84. doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2013.07.006. Epub 2013 Aug 17.

  PMID: 23962447 BACKGROUND

• Hedrich N, Lovey T, Bernhard J, Grobusch MP, Gautret P, Schlagenhauf P; ITIT Global Network. Real-time illness monitoring in travellers: an international, prospective, digital surveillance study. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2025 Nov-Dec;68:102943. doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2025.102943. Epub 2025 Nov 17.

  PMID: 41260318 DERIVED

• Lovey T, Hedrich N, Grobusch MP, Bernhard J, Schlagenhauf P; ITIT Global Network. Surveillance of global, travel-related illness using a novel app: a multivariable, cross-sectional study. BMJ Open. 2024 Jul 27;14(7):e083065. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-083065.

  PMID: 39067885 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Travel-Related Illness; Malaria; Dengue; Chikungunya Fever; Zika Virus Infection; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; Influenza, Human; Diarrhea

Interventions

Observation

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Protozoan Infections; Parasitic Diseases; Infections; Mosquito-Borne Diseases; Vector Borne Diseases; Arbovirus Infections; Virus Diseases; Flavivirus Infections; Flaviviridae Infections; RNA Virus Infections; Hemorrhagic Fevers, Viral; Alphavirus Infections; Togaviridae Infections; Respiratory Tract Infections; Coronavirus Infections; Coronaviridae Infections; Nidovirales Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Orthomyxoviridae Infections; Signs and Symptoms, Digestive

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Methods; Investigative Techniques

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: COHORT
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Prof. Dr.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 8, 2020
• First Posted: December 17, 2020
• Study Start: January 30, 2021
• Primary Completion: December 31, 2024
• Study Completion: December 31, 2025
• Last Updated: December 17, 2020

Record last verified: 2020-12

Locations

CH (1)