Many US Tourists Do Not Know About The Health Risks When Traveling In Poor Countries

Many US Tourists Do Not Know About The Health Risks When Traveling In Poor Countries.
About half of the 30 million Americans who globe-trotting each year to lower-income countries hope communication about potential health risks before heading abroad, strange research shows. The survey of more than 1200 international travelers departing the United States at Boston Logan International Airport found that 38 percent were traveling to low- or middle-income nations. Only 54 percent of those travelers sought constitution view last to their trip, and foreign-born travelers were the least likely to have done so, said the Massachusetts General Hospital researchers.

Lack of regard about potential health problems was the most commonly cited reason for not seeking vigour information before departure to a poorer nation. Of those who did try to find health dirt about their destination, the Internet was the most common source, followed by primary-care doctors, the study authors found.

The swat was a collaboration involving Massachusetts General Hospital, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Boston Public Health Commission and the Massachusetts Port Authority. The findings, published in the November/December originate of the Journal of Travel Medicine, may be worn to develop new methods of educating travelers about passive health risks, such as malaria, typhoid, dengue fever and hepatitis, the researchers said.

And "These results suggest that the Internet and primary-care doctors are two heartening avenues for disseminating message about traveling safely. Offering online resources at the time of ticket purchase or through current travel Web sites would likely reach a large audience of people in need of condition advice," study lead author Dr Regina C LaRocque, of Mass. General's branch of infectious diseases, said in a hospital news release.

So "International travel is the elemental way many infections traverse the world," senior author Dr Edward Ryan, numero uno of the Tropical and Geographic Medicine Center at the hospital, said in the news release medicine. "What many men and women don't realize is that, without seeking the correct health information, they are putting themselves at increased imperil of infection, as well as creating a public health risk in their home communities after they return".