[Illness after travel not always due to exotic disease]

It is extremely important to look for tropical and other exotic diseases in travellers who return with illness or become ill after travelling. Especially tropical diseases and exotic infectious diseases have to be excluded because of their possible fatal outcome. On the other hand, many travellers return with 'common' not-exotic illnesses not related to their journey. When in such cases attention is only given to exotic causes of their illness, diagnosis can be delayed which may be harmful. This was the case in 5 patients: a woman aged 44 years who suffered for months from bloody diarrhoea since her return from Brasil, due to a rectal adenocarcinoma, a 61-year-old man with diarrhoea upon returning from Egypt, who had hairy-cell leukaemia, a 17-year-old boy who developed a ketoacidotic diabetic crisis whilst on a journey in Uganda, but in whose case the first thoughts went to malaria, a 50-year-old man who suffered from throat pain since a journey through East Africa, during which he contracted a flu-like disease, and in whom Kahler's disease was diagnosed, and 69-year-old man suffering from recurrent fever and cough, in whom a radiological lesion was observed in the thorax which proved to be part of Wegener's disease.