Maris S. Arcilla

Post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PI-IBS) can arise following acute infectious gastroenteritis. Despite increasing epidemiological understanding, its pathophysiology remains elusive. Understanding and preventing PI-IBS requires identifying modifiable risk factors and individuals at risk. The cross-sectional design of most previous study, however, prevents the estimation of the incidence of PI-IBS. Moreover, most studies inconsistently reported confounding adjustments, restricting the inference that can be drawn from their results. ¹ Given the strong association with traveller’s diarrhoea (TD), several previous cohorts have evaluated PI-IBS development amongst travellers. ² However, these studies investigated a limited number of predictors prior to or during the onset of PI-IBS. We therefore assessed the development of new-onset PI-IBS in association to an extensive set of potential predictive factors within the worldwide largest longitudinal traveller’s cohort.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the major threats to public health around the world. Besides the intense use and misuse of antimicrobial agents as the major force behind the increase in antimicrobial resistance, the exponential increase of international travel may also substantially contribute to the emergence and spread of AMR. However, knowledge on the extent to which international travel contributes to this is still limited. The Carriage Of Multiresistant Bacteria After Travel (COMBAT) study aims to 1. determine the acquisition rate of multiresistant Enterobacteriaceae during foreign travel 2. ascertain the duration of carriage of these micro-organisms 3. determine the transmission rate within households 4. identify risk factors for acquisition, persistence of carriage and transmission of multiresistant Enterobacteriaceae.