Travel medicine in the office of G. P.

Overview

Travel medicine is a new specialisation which focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illnesses that arise through travel. Up to 60 % of all health complications that occur during travels abroad are injuries. Infectious diseases are the second most common, followed by psychosocial problems. The infectious diseases most commonly imported by the “average” traveller include diarrhoea, malaria (imported from West Africa from travellers who have not taken anti-malarial drugs), acute respiratory infections, hepatitis A, Dengue fever, hepatitis B and gonorrhoea. People who travel abroad fear these infectious diseases the most, but they account for only 1–4 % of all deaths during travelling.

Tourists often do not realise that some of the key negative factors to influence their stay abroad are complications arising through transport, and in particular through air travel (motion sickness, jet-lag, and deep vein thrombosis). Individuals often do not think about the most common infectious disease, traveller’s diarrhoea, and many underestimate the risk of malaria and do not use anti-malarial prophylaxis when travelling in areas where they should. Since more and more individuals wishing to travel abroad are seeking medical advice before their trips, it would be a great advantage if their general practitioner was able to offer these clients expert information in the field. The Faculty of Tropical and Travel Medicine at the Institute for Postgraduate Education in Medicine offers a number of courses on a variety of topics. However, unfortunately, attendance figures for the courses are currently quite low.

Key words:
Travel medicine, prevention, prophylaxis, vaccination, immunization, malaria, traveler’s diarrhoea