Travel health. Part 1: preparing the tropical traveller

The health threats of modern day travel change as population, wealth and tourism increase across the world. A series of three articles have been written to describe the spectrum of health issues associated with travel. Pre-travel health advice has become more focused on risk assessment and educating the traveller about infectious disease and the more frequent non-infectious hazards associated with travel, while ensuring they are not unnecessarily exposed to injury from vaccines and drugs. In part one, the role of the health advisor and the needs of the traveller are examined. The importance of risk assessment during a consultation is described and factors that influence recommendations and prescribing are explored. As most travel-associated morbidity and mortality is non-vaccine preventable, the focus of the pre-travel consultation should be on educating the traveller and influencing behaviour change. The second article in this series deals with the highest risk group of travellers--residents who visit friends and relatives. It highlights their specific problems and special needs and how to influence their risk of disease by addressing their health beliefs and their cultural dimension of risk. The third article explores the common, and not so common, clinical problems found in returned travellers. Nurses have to deal with a large range of clinical problems and diagnostic dilemmas when attending to the returned traveller. The review provides a perspective on the frequency and severity of problems and how nurses should manage travel associated disease.