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Abstract

Background

International travel is considered a risk factor for acquiring ; however, there are little empirical data to support this.

Aim

To examine the prevalence and risk factors for infections among heterosexual international travellers (n = 28,786) attending the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC), Australia, compared to Australian residents (n = 20,614).

Methods

We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study and analysed sexual behaviours and chlamydia positivity among heterosexual males and females aged ≤ 30 attending MSHC for the first time between January 2007 and February 2017. ‘Travellers’ were defined as individuals born outside of Australia who had resided in the country < 2 years. Associations between patient characteristics and chlamydia positivity were examined.

Results

Chlamydia positivity was higher among travellers (11.2%) compared with Australian residents (8.5%; p < 0.001). Male travellers had higher chlamydia positivity (12.1%) than Australian males (9.3%; p < 0.001), as did female travellers (10.4%) compared with Australian females (7.7%; p < 0.001). Travellers had a higher mean number of sexual partners than Australian residents among males (5.7 vs 4.7; p < 0.001) and females (3.6 vs 3.2; p < 0.001). Travellers from the United Kingdom, Europe, Ireland and New Zealand accounted for 29.6%, 21%, 8.5% and 5.8% of infections, respectively. Chlamydia in males and females was associated with younger age (≤ 25), inconsistent condom use, a higher number of sexual partners (≥ 4 partners) and being a traveller (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

We found that international travel is an independent risk factor for chlamydia among young heterosexual travellers in Australia, who should therefore be a target group for chlamydia prevention.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2019.24.44.1900219
2019-10-31
2024-12-21
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2019.24.44.1900219
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International travel as risk factor for Chlamydia trachomatis infections among young heterosexuals attending a sexual health clinic in Melbourne, Australia, 2007 to 2017
<p class="citation"> <span>Citation style for this article:</span> <span class="meta-value authors"> <a href="/search?value1=Ei+T+Aung&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Aung Ei T</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Eric+PF+Chow&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Chow Eric PF</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Christopher+K+Fairley&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Fairley Christopher K</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Jane+S+Hocking&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Hocking Jane S</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Catriona+S+Bradshaw&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Bradshaw Catriona S</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Deborah+A+Williamson&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Williamson Deborah A</a>, <a href="/search?value1=Marcus+Y+Chen&option1=author&noRedirect=true" class="nonDisambigAuthorLink">Chen Marcus Y</a></span>. International travel as risk factor for Chlamydia trachomatis infections among young heterosexuals attending a sexual health clinic in Melbourne, Australia, 2007 to 2017. <a href="/content/ecdc">Euro Surveill.</a> 2019;24(44):pii=1900219. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2019.24.44.1900219" title="doi link" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2019.24.44.1900219</a> <span class="ES_Article_citation"> <span class="generated">Received</span>: 31 Mar 2019;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="generated">Accepted</span>: 17 Sept 2019 </span> </p>
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2019.24.44.1900219
/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2019.24.44.1900219
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