Risks of Travel, Benefits of a Specialist Consult
If patients are planning to travel to developing countries, their primary care physicians can counsel them on various medical risks, especially traveler’s diarrhea, and offer to update their immunizations. However, travelers to areas where there is a risk of malaria, yellow fever, or other tropical diseases should be referred to a specialist in travel medicine. In this article, we review the key elements of the pretravel consult as it relates to the prevention and self-treatment of the most common diseases that pose health risks for travelers. One third to one half of travelers to developing countries experience some kind of illness while abroad, most commonly diarrhea or upper respiratory infections, which typically lead to 3 lost days during a 2-week trip. These illnesses are often preventable and self-treatable. Unfortunately, studies suggest that most travelers do not seek adequate medical advice, and that when they do they often fail to complete courses of medication.
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Tropical Travel Medicine: A Growing Interest in Tropical Medicine Reflects the Increasing Incidence of Tropical Disease in the Western World
There is a growing awareness among health-care professionals that, as people travel more frequently to remote places and as global commerce increases, more people will return home with infectious diseases that, so far, have only seriously plagued the developing world. European and American physicians, medical students and other health professionals have therefore developed an interest in tropical diseases—they increasingly need to be able to diagnose and treat them. The US government is also taking notice for various reasons: “Number one, health affects the economy of nations; number two, the economy affects the stability, which takes us into the political realm. You put that on top of a straight forward humanitarian issue and then you have multiple factors at work.” In any case, the reawakening interest in tropical diseases—be it for professional or humanitarian reasons—is inevitably good news for the developing world.
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President’s Address: Travel Medicine and Principles of Safe Travel
Persons crossing international boundaries away from their medical support systems are put at risk for illness and injury. Travel medicine is a new medical discipline that quantifies these health risks and develops strategies for reducing them. Obtaining health and evacuation insurance for a future trip is important for persons with medical conditions, those planning trips to developing tropical or semi-tropical regions of the world or when an international stay anywhere will be as long as a month. Pre-travel medical evaluation, vaccines against endemic infectious diseases and medications to reduce the occurrence of diarrhea and malaria during trips to endemic areas, and medications for self-treatment of common illnesses such as diarrhea are fundamental to travel medicine. This article summarizes essential elements in travel medicine and offers 10 recommendations for safe travel.
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Travel Medicine
Travelers should see a physician before leaving for a trip if they are going to developing countries, going off the usual tourist routes, or if they have chronic diseases that could be affected by travel. Travelers should protect themselves against common diseases that may be mild but that will disrupt their trip as well as protecting themselves against less common diseases that may be serious or even fatal. Some foreign countries require certain vaccinations before they will allow the traveler to enter the country. All travelers need to be up to date on routine vaccines they would normally get if they were not traveling Travelers can pick up infections from contaminated food or water, from insect bites, animal bites, or from other people. Vaccinations, medications, and simple precautions can reduce or eliminate the risk of many of these travel-related infections. This review covers diseases commonly encountered by travelers or those for which vaccinations are recommended.
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Travel Medicine and Vaccination
An estimated more than 800 million travelers worldwide cross international boundaries each year. However, whether associated with tourism, humanitarian efforts, globalization of industry, or migrant workers, studies suggest only a small number seek pre-travel health advice. In addition, the composition of those traveling continues to become more diverse and medically complex, creating a vastly different perspective on travel-associated medical concerns, preparations, and required medical knowledge. With these decreasing boundaries and increasing activities, travel medicine has become a rapidly evolving field of medicine. Understanding the dynamics of travel and the interplay of healthcare will minimize the adverse effect of travel-related illnesses and concerns while maximizing enjoyment and success for the trip.
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