Promoting travel clinic referrals: exploring partnerships for healthier travel

Many travellers are unaware or unprepared for the health-related risks of i nternational travel. Indeed, studies of travel-related morbidity have estim ated that between 15 and 45% of travellers to tropical and sub-tropical des tinations experience a variety of mild to severe clinical symptoms during t heir travel. While some inadequacies may exist in the pre-travel health adv ice provided by travel clinics, recent studies have suggested that these cl inics are more effective in promoting health awareness and consequently in preventing illness than more traditional health services. Unfortunately, tr aveller attendance records at pre-travel health clinics are poor. This situ ation suggests that new partnerships must be developed which encourage heal thier travel by promoting the pre-departure use of travel health clinic ser vices. The intent of this paper is to generate discussion as well as to ini tiate research into the development and evaluation of new partnerships to p romote healthier travel. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .