Travel medicine - what each doctor needs to know

The number of Polish tourists travelling to hot climate countries in Asia, Africa and South America has been increasing each year. Tourists are exposed to different types of pathogens including those transmitted through insects as well as food-borne, air-borne or sexually transmitted germs, diseases that are not prevalent in the place of their permanent residence, which is the temperate climate zone. The aim of this study is to explain basic concepts of travel medicine to family doctors. Travel medicine represents a new, dynamically developing branch of medicine which enters doctors' offices more and more frequently, forcing them, in a sense, to demonstrate the knowledge of diagnostics and treatment of tropical diseases, the expertise in preventive medicine procedures such as preventive vaccinations, antimalarial chemoprophylaxis or preparation a traveler's first-aid kit. Each decade the world has been changing into a global village. Many tourists have been travelling to increasingly inaccessible interior. They want to see as much as possible in the shortest possible period. They seem not to think of the dangers, or at least unpleasant surprises, they may encounter at any stage of their journey. The risk of developing an infection during such distant travels depends on a number of factors. These factors include: the levels of endemicity in a visited territory, general health condition of travelers (properly functioning immune system, thermoregulation system, the history of chronic diseases), already undertaken health prevention measures within the field of broadly understood concept of health prevention, the duration of the stay or planned activities in the visited place (extreme sports). Due to a constantly growing number of travelers, theoretical and practical knowledge of health hazards prevailing in most popular tourist destinations, as well as the implementation of certain prophylactic measures aimed at preventing the health problems have become an absolute necessity. This necessity has to be recognized and accepted not only by travel physicians but also by family doctors.