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Health Risks for Short-Term Travelers

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Travel Medicine

Summary

Epidemiologic data show that relatively minor ailments affect more than half of the travelers during a brief stay in the tropics. Diarrhea and upper respiratory tract infections are the most frequent problems. In contrast, infectious hepatitis affects only 1 in 500, typhoid fever 1 in 30000, cholera 1 in 500000 travelers to the tropics. The risk of malaria and of poliomyelitis is usually underestimated.

When tourists and foreign aid volunteers started to travel in greater number to developing countries, hardly any data were available about their health risks. Consequently, medical recommendations were vague and even more contradictory than nowadays. This prompted us among many others to conduct initially retrospective [1–4], later follow-up studies [5, 6]. Additionally, various case history studies were conducted, primarily to find the attack rates in illlnesses and accidents which rarely affect travelers.

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References

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Authors
  1. R. Steffen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Sozial- und Präventivmedizin der Universität Zürich, Sumatrastraße 30, CH-8006, Zürich, Switzerland

    Robert Steffen

  2. Malaria Branch, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA, 30333, USA

    Hans Lobel

  3. Chemin Roitelet 5, CH-1292, Chambèsy, Switzerland

    James Haworth

  4. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WCLE 7HT, England

    David J. Bradley MA, DM, FRCPath, FFCM, FRCP, FlBiol, Hon. FlPHE

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Steffen, R. (1989). Health Risks for Short-Term Travelers. In: Steffen, R., Lobel, H., Haworth, J., Bradley, D.J. (eds) Travel Medicine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73772-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73772-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-73774-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-73772-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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