Little has been published on the risks of participating in an expedition. A
questionnaire survey was conducted to quantify those risks and to determin
e how expedition organizers plan for medical mishaps.
246 expeditions, taking 2381 participants to more than one hundred countrie
s, were studied retrospectively. 65 expeditions (26%) reported no medical i
ncidents; the remaining 181 reported 835 in 130000 man-days (6.4 per 1000 m
an-days). 59% of the medical incidents seen on expeditions were preventable
, one-third of these being due to gastrointestinal upsets. 78% of medical i
ncidents were classified as minor and only 5% (40) as serious. There was no
excess of serious incidents in any particular organizational group or envi
ronment.
The findings of this survey suggest that the health risks of participating
in a well-planned expedition are similar to those encountered during normal
active life.