ABSTRACT
People travel all around the world to explore, trade, sojourn, etc. Millions of individuals cross national and international borders. Travel medicine services are offered by general practitioners, specialized travel clinics, or immunization centers. Epidemiology, illness prevention, and travel-related self-treatment are all included in the interdisciplinary field of travel medicine. The main objective is to keep travelers alive and in good health, by reducing the effects of illness and accidents through preventative measures and self-care. The danger to a traveler's health and well-being must be understood, and the travel medicine practitioner's job is to help their patient or client recognize and manage those risks. The absence of any disease or symptom does not always indicate good health. Chronic illness sufferers, including those with cancer, diabetes, and hypertension, can maintain a reasonable level of health and mobility. Travel medicine is a rapidly developing, extremely dynamic, multidisciplinary field that calls for knowledge of a range of travel-related illnesses as well as current information on the global epidemiology of infectious and non-infectious health risks, immunization laws and requirements around the world, and the shifting trends in drug-resistant infections. Pre-travel consultation aims to reduce the traveler's risk of disease and harm while on the road through preventive counseling, education, recommended drugs, and essential vaccines. Specialized medical guidance can help reduce the potential health risks of travel. Emporiatrics is not only used for traveling advice or things to be done during the period of the journey but it also creates room in implementing the interdisciplinary subject with new methods or development of new policies, technologies, and various programs to reduce unnecessary problems of the travelers, which will boost tourism.
ABSTRACT
Background In this study, we aimed to compare the imaging findings between coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients with well-controlled, poorly-controlled, and non-diabetic patients and subsequently find any relation between haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels and high-resolution chest computed tomography (HRCT) chest score. Methodology A total of 200 individuals with coexisting COVID-19 and type 2 diabetes mellitus were included in this retrospective cohort study. Based on their HbA1c levels, patients were divided into three groups. The imaging data and laboratory values were obtained from the online medical records of the patients. In addition, the chest computed tomography (CT) score was evaluated as the sum of individual scores from five lung lobes: scores of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were assigned to each lobe. Any peripheral opacification pattern was noted. Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels and HRCT scores were then analysed by multiple linear regression models using R software. Results The prevalence of diabetes in the study population was 71.5%. Of this, 56 patients had well-controlled diabetes (28%) and 87 patients had poorly controlled diabetes (43.5%); 126 (63%) patients were male and the median age was 54.45 years (95% CI: 54.45 ± 15.53). We found that diabetes status, co-presence of ground-glass appearance with mixed consolidation, and consolidation and reverse halo sign in the HRCT findings were significant predictors of the HRCT scores in patients with COVID-19. Conclusions The presence of any co-morbidities should be viewed as a high-risk case of COVID-19. Diabetes status is significantly associated with the severity of HRCT findings in lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection. Therefore, it is important to prioritise the patients who have COVID-19 along with diabetes.