Journal of travel medicine
-
Travellers are at risk of acquiring infectious diseases during travel, with risks differing by destination, travel and traveller characteristics. A pre-travel health consultation may minimize this risk. However, uptake of pre-travel health advice remains low. We investigated pre-travel health preparations and disease-specific risk behaviours among notified cases of selected travel-associated infectious diseases imported into Australia. ⋯ Pre-travel health advice seeking practices and vaccine uptake was suboptimal among cases of notified disease. The results of this study highlight the need for a better understanding of barriers to pre-travel health seeking, particularly among high risk travellers, to reduce the importation of infectious diseases into Australia.
-
There are several possible malaria prevention strategies for travellers. In Switzerland, chemoprophylaxis (CP) is recommended for persons visiting areas highly endemic for malaria and stand-by emergency treatment (SBET) for areas with moderate to low risk. ⋯ This study shows the considerable decline of antimalarial prescription for chemoprophylaxis that occurred over the 10-year period in favour of SBET.
-
Recommendations for improving traveler adherence address both the content of the advice given and the structure of the consultation. The objective of this article is to describe how travel health consultations are structured in France. ⋯ While the majority of practitioners follow most of the recommendations regarding the structure of travel health consultations, some of the factors that enhance traveler learning are underutilized, reducing the likelihood that travelers will apply the advice given. The study illustrates the need to develop more educational intervention methods and to evaluate their impact on travelers.
-
Travel medicine research has remained relatively unchanged in the face of rapid expansion of international travel and is unlikely to meet health challenges beyond infectious diseases. Our aim was to identify the range of health outcomes during travel using real-time monitoring and daily reporting of health behaviours and outcomes and identify traveller subgroups who may benefit from more targeted advice before and during travel. ⋯ Our study offers a revolutionary look at an almost real-time timeline of health events and behaviours during travel using mHealth technology. Non-infectious disease related health issues were common in this cohort, despite being largely unaddressed in traditional travel medicine research and suggest a substantial potential for improving evidence-based travel medicine advice.
-
Gap year travellers can potentially be exposed to many infectious diseases and other travel-related health problems including injuries and psychological problems. Currently, there is little information on health and wellbeing of this particular group of travellers. ⋯ Gap year, pre-departure, preparation.