Travel medicine
Travel medicine is a growing multidisciplinary field focused on advising travelers on how to prevent illness and injury during international travel. Since the 1970s, it has developed in response to the increasing volume of global travel, emphasizing the importance of preventive care and effective strategies to avoid diseases commonly found in different countries. Specialists in travel medicine aim to prevent medical emergencies, manage the risk of disease onset, and control the spread of contagious illnesses associated with travel.
Travel medicine is particularly crucial for travelers heading to developing nations, where diseases such as hepatitis, typhoid, malaria, and tuberculosis are more prevalent. Physicians provide guidance on managing health risks related to altitude, climate, and travel stress, and they can assist patients requiring ongoing treatments by connecting them with local medical facilities. Additionally, travel medicine emphasizes practical advice on safe eating, hydration, and packing essential supplies. By prioritizing prevention over treatment, travel medicine aims to ensure the well-being of travelers and limit the impact of global health issues.
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Travel medicine
Given the sheer volume of modern global travel, the field of travel medicine is one of the fastest growing medical fields to develop since the 1970s. Travel medicine is a multidisciplinary field that advises travelers on how to prevent illness and injury during extended travel to other countries. As with most fields of medicine, travel medicine stresses preventive care, effective strategies for how to anticipate and, thus, avoid illnesses common to the country or countries of destination. Many international conglomerates with staffs that routinely travel overseas actually maintain travel medicine physicians on call as a way to maintain the well-being of their employees. In addition, many travel agencies, cruise ship lines, and international airlines secure travel medicine specialists to advise those booking international travel on how to best protect themselves while abroad.
The goals of physicians who specialize in travel medicine are threefold: 1) to prevent medical emergencies during the specific time period the individual traveler will be away; 2) to prevent the onset of diseases that are an element of the risk profile of the countries being visited; and 3) to help contain and control the spread of contagious diseases that are routinely spread via global travel. Although exact numbers are difficult to determine because of the fluid nature of travel today and the generally open borders among most nations, Mark J. Sotir and Regina C. LaRocque, writing for the CDC Yellow Book, reported that in 2012 more than a billion people traveled across international borders. The international emergencies over the West Africa Ebola virus outbreak in 2014 and the Zika virus in 2016 involving travel to the Caribbean and South America are notable examples of where travel medicine becomes critical.
Overview
Travel medicine most specifically targets how to prevent the onset of major diseases that often thrive in developing nations where medical facilities and government oversight are minimal, such as hepatitis, typhoid, yellow fever, meningitis, and diphtheria—diseases that in more developed countries are considered rare but that pose a constant and real threat in less advanced countries. Travel medicine also works to minimize less dramatic but nevertheless serious illnesses, such as diarrhea from poor water systems, food poisoning from unsanitary food preparation, malaria, and tuberculosis.
In addition, travel medicine physicians can advise patients on how factors in their destination such as altitude, weather, food and water supplies, and travel stress might impact preexisting conditions. In the case of patients requiring ongoing treatments—dialysis, for instance, or cancer treatments—the travel medicine physician can advise on the medical and emergency facilities in the destination and can even set up emergency contacts in the area. Travel medicine specialists can also advise on the possibilities of animal attacks and bug bites. Because of the nature of the ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic, particularly in Africa and areas of the Middle East, travelers can be advised about taking precautions to minimize their risk of infection.
Often travel medicine physicians advise common-sense precautions—how to wear appropriate clothing for extreme temperatures, how to stay hydrated, how to evaluate potential restaurants for eating, how to book reliable accommodations, and how to pack a general purpose travel kit. The concept behind travel medicine is that prevention is far more practical than treatment.
Bibliography
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, May 2016. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.
International Society of Travel Medicine. ISTM, 1991–2016. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.
"International Travel and Health." World Health Organization. WHO, 2016. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.
Mangili, Alexandra. "Transmission of Infectious Diseases during Commercial Air Travel." Lancet 12 Mar. 2005: 989–96. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.
Sotir, Mark J., and Regina C. LaRocque. "Travel Epidemiology." CDC Yellow Book. CDC, 10 July 2015. Web. 19 Aug. 2016.