The importance of different forms of prevention in travel medicine

AbstractThe Asia–Pacific region is becoming an increasingly popular destination for holidaymakers and business travelers. Despite the seductive tourist attractions and the growing financial importance of the region, infectious diseases have unfortunately repeatedly caused major epidemics in the region. The area includes various geographical situations from high mountains to the subtropical and monsoon forests, dry deserts and seashore. The travel medicine specialist's task is to decrease the various risk of travel to the region. Infectious diseases, extreme temperatures and marine hazards could be almost entirely prevented by primary prevention forms of travel medicine such as vaccination, chemoprophylaxis and pretravel advice. There are some high–risk groups (e.g., elderly people, backpackers, families with children, adventure travelers) among the growing number of tourists. Obviously, the increased numbers of such travelers result in a rising incidence of travel–related illnesses and accidents. For those groups, primary prevention sometimes is not enough. The pretravel medical check up, specialists' consultations and treatment, as forms of secondary prevention, are also essential in travel medicine. Patients who suffer from serious illnesses or who have accidents must often be repatriated. “State–of–the–art repatriation”, as a special form of tertiary prevention of travel medicine will play an important role in the future and is directly related to effective travel insurance, which could help in providing good medical care to the patients even far from their home. The levels, methods and importance of prevention in travel medicine are discussed in this article