3,4 The children of these

immigrants, born mainly in the EU, constitute a population at great risk. To the former factors, the natural vulnerability of these children should be added. Although the registry of serious imported diseases among VFR children has increased, a very scarce number of studies describing and assessing preventive activities (advice to travelers and international vaccination) has been described in international databases.5 The main aim of this study was to describe and compare the biogeographic destinations and the personal and travel-related risk factors in children taking part in VFR trips and those undertaking non-VFR (tourist) trips. A randomized cross-sectional study of a population under the PXD101 research buy age of 15 coming for pre-travel advice to the Unitat de Salut Internacional Metropolitana Nord (Barcelona’s North Metropolitan International Health Unit, located in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Catalonia, Spain) during

the period 2000 to 2009 was performed. This Unit belongs to the main public health provider of Catalonia (Institut Català de la Salut), where care to children aged 15 years or less is free of charge, although adults—parents—pay a symbolic fee together with tax for the administration of the yellow fever vaccine if necessary. The children are taken to the Unit on the initiative of the parents or on the advice of their primary care pediatrician or nurse. The following variables were studied: age, gender, immigrant buy RG7420 (yes/no), reason to travel (VFR/tourist), lodging (hotel/particular house), type of setting (urban/rural), biogeographic region, time interval

between consultation and beginning of the trip (days prior), next time abroad, ineffective period (yes/no), medical history, vaccines administered [ie, yellow fever, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), typhoid fever, hepatitis A, and A-C-Y-W135 meningitis vaccines], and antimalarial chemoprophylaxis. The study population was divided into two categories: (1) children visiting friends and relatives abroad (CVFR) and (2) children taking part in tourist trips (tourists). All subjects born in the EU or other European countries (even those born to immigrant parents) were defined as autochthonous and those born outside as immigrants. Classification of the study population according to the ecological zone of origin was based on classical bioregion mapping, which divides the emerged lands into seven large zones (Figure 1): (1) the Holarctic region (North America, Europe, Maghreb, Middle East, Central Asia, Siberia, China, Korea, and Japan); (2) the African Paleotropical region (sub-Saharan Africa except for the western half of South Africa); (3) the Asian Paleotropical (Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia); (4) the Neotropical region (Central America, Caribbean islands, and South America); and (5) other regions (South Africa, Antarctica, and Oceania).