Travails of travel. Subtle and obscure causes of illness.
Knowledge of patients' travel history is an important facet of diagnosis. Malaria, Chagas' disease, toxoplasmosis, Lyme disease, arboviruses, and many other relatively unusual diseases can be contracted while the patient is traveling, and the symptoms, which may mimic another disease, may not become obvious until the patient returns. The Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus alerts us to easier resolutions of our daily diagnostic dilemmas: "Look within and let neither the peculiar quality of anything nor its value escape thee."
Gordon
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D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods*; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D014195:Travel