Infecţii intestinale ale epocii moderne: diareea călătorului din perspectiva medicinei preventive.

Travelers' diarrhea (TD) is the most common condition seen among people who are travelling, especially from developed to developing countries, its prevalence reaching almost 70%. Even though, in most cases, TD is a non-aggressive, self-limited disease and there are effective treatment methods available, prevention measures are worth being taken, because, by controlling the risk of infection and its post-infectious complications, the traveler's health would not be affected either during the trip, or after. TD prevention consists in three main types of measures, often requiring a combination of all of them adjusted to the destination and traveler's risk factors: education on food and beverage safety/hygiene, chemoprophylaxis and immunoprophylaxis. Because bacterial infection is the most frequent cause of TD (up to 90%), it becomes rationale, not only for curative, but for prophylactic purposes too, the usage of a non-absorbable bactericide wide spectrum antibiotic like Rifaximin-α which also has a low rate of resistance patterns. Due to its pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics advantages along with its favorable results from several clinical trials, Rifaximin-α is now probably the best and safest prophylactic (but curative, too) option in case of TD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]