Volume 22, Number 5—May 2016
Letter
Health Precautions Taken by Travelers to Countries with Ebola Virus Disease
Ifeoma Ezeoke, Alhaji Saffa, Seth Guthartz, Anna Tate, Jay K. Varma, and Neil M. Vora
Table
Health precautions taken by 2,032 travelers to countries with Ebola virus disease who underwent active monitoring by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene after returning to the United States, March–December 29,2015*
| Characteristic | Health precaution† |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pretravel medical advice |
Malaria prophylaxis‡ |
Influenza vaccine in past 12 mo |
||||||
| No. (%) | RR (95% CI) | No. (%) | RR (95% CI) | No. (%) | RR (95% CI) | |||
| Country visited | ||||||||
| Guinea | 960 (62.3) | 0.91 (0.73–1.13) | 567 (37.4) | 0.51 (0.41–0.62) | 932 (60.5) | 0.89 (0.72–1.11) | ||
| Liberia | 85 (57.8) | 0.84 (0.65–1.09) | 71 (50.0) | 0.67 (0.52–0.87) | 79 (53.7) | 0.79 (0.61–1.02) | ||
| Sierra Leone | 194 (63.4) | 0.93 (0.74–1.17) | 158 (53.0) | 0.71 (0.57–0.89) | 161 (52.6) | 0.77 (0.61–0.98) | ||
| Multiple countries |
26 (68.4) |
Reference |
26 (74.3) |
Reference |
26 (68.4) |
Reference |
||
| Sex | ||||||||
| F | 574 (71.5) | 1.27 (1.19–1.35) | 409 (52.3) | 1.55 (1.40–1.71) | 561 (69.9) | 1.35 (1.26–1.44) | ||
| M |
691 (56.2) |
Reference |
413 (34.1) |
Reference |
637 (51.8) |
Reference |
||
| Age, y | ||||||||
| <5 | 106 (82.2) | 1.37 (1.24–1.51) | 74 (57.4) | 1.54 (1.30–1.83) | 100 (77.5) | 1.44 (1.29–1.61) | ||
| 5–14 | 144 (80.5) | 1.34 (1.22–1.47) | 103 (57.9) | 1.59 (1.36–1.84) | 127 (71.0) | 1.34 (1.20–1.50) | ||
| 15–24 | 82 (60.7) | 1.01 (0.87–1.17) | 58 (43.6) | 1.16 (0.94–1.43) | 75 (55.6) | 1.08 (0.92–1.27) | ||
| 25–44 | 509 (59.9) | Reference | 312 (37.6) | Reference | 454 (53.4) | Reference | ||
| 45–64 | 384 (56.3) | 0.94 (0.86–1.02) | 254 (38.0) | 1.01 (0.88–1.15) | 404 (59.2) | 1.11 (1.02–1.21) | ||
| ≥65 |
40 (70.2) |
1.17 (0.98–1.39) |
21 (38.9) |
1.05 (0.74–1.48) |
38 (66.7) |
1.24 (1.02–1.51) |
||
| Reason for travel | ||||||||
| Business | 161 (61.9) | 1.00 (0.91–1.11) | 140 (58.1) | 1.54 (1.37–1.75) | 135 (51.9) | 0.86 (0.76–0.97) | ||
| Education | 12 (70.6) | 1.13 (0.83–1.54) | 7 (41.2) | 1.09 (0.61–1.93) | 7 (41.2) | 0.68 (0.38–1.19) | ||
| Service-related§ | 45 (70.3) | 1.13 (0.96–1.33) | 46 (78.0) | 2.07 (1.78–2.40) | 37 (57.8) | 0.96 (0.78–1.19) | ||
| Tourism | 6 (33.3) | 0.53 (0.28–1.03) | 10 (55.6) | 1.47 (0.97–2.24) | 9 (50.0) | 0.82 (0.52–1.30) | ||
| Visiting friends/relatives | 1,030 (62.2) | Reference | 613 (37.4) | Reference | 1,001 (60.5) | Reference | ||
| Refused/unknown |
11 (61.1) |
1.10 (0.79–1.54) |
6 (35.3) |
0.99 (0.53–1.88) |
9 (50.0) |
0.92 (0.60–1.42) |
||
| Country of citizenship | ||||||||
| Guinea | 217 (57.6) | 0.89 (0.82–0.98) | 123 (33.0) | 0.76 (0.65–0.89) | 220 (58.4) | 0.96 (0.87–1.06) | ||
| Liberia | 19 (45.2) | 0.71 (0.50–0.99) | 12 (29.3) | 0.67 (0.41–1.08) | 18 (42.9) | 0.70 (0.50–1.00) | ||
| Sierra Leone | 59 (52.7) | 0.82 (0.69–0.98) | 31 (28.2) | 0.65 (0.48–0.88) | 58 (51.8) | 0.85 (0.71–1.02) | ||
| United States | 865 (64.0) | Reference | 574 (43.3) | Reference | 813 (60.1) | Reference | ||
| Other/unknown |
105 (70.5) |
1.11 (0.99–1.24) |
82 (57.8) |
1.34 (1.15–1.56) |
89 (59.8) |
0.99 (0.87–1.14) |
||
| Total | 1,265 (62.3) | NA | 822 (41.3) | NA | 1,198 (59.0) | NA | ||
*RR, relative risk; NA, not applicable.
†Persons with health precautions reported as unknown are not shown. Percentages are calculated for each row. Bold indicates statistically significant associations in which the CI does not include 1.
‡Data were included only if the date of data collection was within 7 d of the date of departure from an Ebola virus disease–affected country.
§Persons who traveled for humanitarian aid, missionary, volunteer, research, or military reasons.
Page created: April 14, 2016
Page updated: April 14, 2016
Page reviewed: April 14, 2016
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