The Traveller's Diarrhoea Network, by which the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center is
electronically connected with two major airport quarantine stations and three infectious disease
hospitals, was launched in February 1988 in Japan. The data on travellers' diarrhoea detected
is reported weekly by e-mail. Two clusters of infection among travellers returning from Italy
were reported by two airport quarantine stations at the end of September 1998. A total of 12
salmonella isolates from 2 clusters were examined. All were identified as Salmonella enteritidis,
phage type 4 and showed identical banding patterns on pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. A case-control study showed that the scrambled eggs served at the hotel restaurant in Rome were the
likely source of this outbreak. This outbreak could not have been detected promptly and
investigated easily without the e-mail network. International exchange of data on travellers'
diarrhoea is important for preventing and controlling food-borne illnesses infected abroad.