CDC Urges Physicians to Consider Infectious Disease in Patients in or Traveling to Hurricane-Affected Areas

​The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued guidance for providers caring for patients in or recently returned from hurricane-affected areas, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. CDC suggests that providers in the continental United States ask patients about travel to those areas in the past four weeks to determine whether the patient is at increased risk for infectious diseases. The heightened risk is expected to last until March 2018, depending on how quickly safe water systems are reestablished.