Letter to Editor
Authors
1 International Travel Medicine Clinic of El Paso and Center for Infectious Diseases and Travel Medicine, El Paso, Texas, USA
2 University Medical Center of El Paso, Texas, USA
The knowledge base of Travel Medicine and the opportunities for disease control and elimination are being currently developed and described. New vaccines and preventive/curative drugs are becoming available as a result of well-controlled clinical trials. As new threats emerge (i.e. AIDS, Legionnaires’ disease, and hemorrhagic colitis) and travelers embark on more complex itineraries, additional approaches are needed by those working in Travel Medicine. Epidemiology It is estimated that more than 1 billion travelers, including 68.3 million Americans, crossed international boundaries worldwide in 2014 [1, 2]. Whether related to tourism, humanitarian efforts, military leave, or globalization of industry, travelers are at increased health risk. The CDC approximates that 30 to 60 percent of these travelers, an estimated 15 million people, become ill due to their travels [3, 4]... (Read more...)