Holten

Kelly Holton: The globetrotter's guide to healthy travel - there and back again without getting sick

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• published: 30 Mar 2017
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Recent outbreaks of illnesses such as Ebola and Zika have underscored travel’s role in the spread of infectious disease, but healthy travel is relatively simple – with a little preparation. Still, not all health care providers and patients recognize the importance of pre-travel consultations, vaccinations, incorporating travel history into medical records, etc. Another challenge is disseminating travel health recommendations in modern, useful, attention-grabbing formats. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Travelers’ Health Branch (THB) works to safeguard the health of U.S. residents traveling internationally or living abroad. The THB Communication and Education Team will tell the story of its progress on meeting these challenges and where we hope the future leads. To make things a little more interactive, we will explore our repertoire of resources from the perspective of a traveler planning a vacation. THB maintains a robust website with separate portals tailored to the specific needs of providers and patients. The site walks users through destination-specific recommendations on everything from food safety to packing lists. Online travel notices explain precautions needed in certain destinations because of situations such as disease outbreaks and natural disasters. THB also distributes information via two mobile apps, Twitter, Facebook and partnerships with businesses, student organizations and other federal agencies. Through our experiences with disease outbreaks, emergency responses, and mass gatherings, we have continuously refined our communication and education strategies. We are now using online advertising and social marketing as another way to get travel health onto the public’s radar. We are also crafting an online travel medicine curriculum of continuing education courses available for free to all health care providers. Our ultimate goal is to make travel health a routine part of the dialogue between providers and patients.