By: Jorge Castillo
Corporate Director of Business Development, Passport Health
as printed in the September Edition of the National Tour Association's Courier Magazine
If you are a travel professional booking cruises, tours or other getaways, knowing the health and security risks affecting your travelers at their destination not only is ethical but a legal responsibility that has been upheld in federal court. The duty to warn and inform can be alleviated simply by recommending that the traveler visit a travel medicine specialist, ideally two to four weeks prior to departure.
THE TRAVELER MUST BE PROTECTED
It wasn’t too long ago that China and India were considered remote destinations for the leisure traveler. Now, almost 2 million Americans visit China and Hong Kong annually and more than 1 million travel to India every year for leisure and business purposes. Travel to Asian and African countries continues to rise and with it the exposure of travelers to potentially fatal diseases increases. U.S. courts have taken notice of what can happen to travelers if they are not prepared for an international trip. In fact, the courts have shown us that they tend to weigh heavily in favor of the traveler. For instance, in the 1994 case Stafford v. Intrav, Inc., the court ruled that a travel agent has a duty to disclose information if it is not “obvious and apparent” to the client. As a general rule travel sellers are under an ongoing obligation to discover readily available information that may have a negative impact on the travel contract (such as health hazards and outbreaks) and disclose that information to the consumer. Because the travel agent is a professional with higher access to information, he/she must disclose any information that could potentially adversely affect the client’s trip.
AN OPPORTUNITY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS
Taking care of your clients’ well being should not be looked upon as a burden. It just takes one mosquito bite to turn a dream vacation into a nightmare. Many potentially fatal diseases are transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Making sure that your client visits a travel medicine specialist should therefore be viewed as an investment that will have both short- and long-term benefits to your business. Furthermore, creating packages to more exotic locations and making sure that your clients understand that their safety and health are of your utmost concern means that they will be comfortable choosing to go anywhere you are confident to take them.
By recommending a travel medicine specialist to your traveler, you immediately are positioning yourself as an experienced tour operator. You understand what determines the success of a trip. You ensure that your overseas business partners are reliable, that the transportation shows up on time and that the hotel delivers on its promises. Why then would you neglect the most important variable in a travel itinerary: the traveler’s health?
Even an episode of traveler’s diarrhea, which affects 40 to 60 percent of the traveling public, can derail a well-planned itinerary. If untreated, it can be a serious medical problem and potentially have long-term consequences. However, with the proper preparation, travelers who encounter it will have everything they need to treat it and continue on without missing a beat.
RELEVANCE FOR TOUR OPERATORS AND TRAVEL AGENTS
Central America, the Caribbean, Asia and South America are major tourist and business destinations. Diseases like Hepatitis A, Dengue fever, Yellow fever and Typhoid fever may be fatal or have lifelong effects on some patients. Sorting Protecting Your Clients’ Health through the necessary vaccinations is a ask that should be left to a trained medical professional.
Cruises are not exceptions either. Mosquitoes can and do make it from the shorelines onto the cruise ships, and travelers should be educated on how to properly apply mosquito repellent or be immunized if necessary. Food, water and other safety precautions affect the traveler inside the cruise ship but also at ports of call when the traveler disembarks.
Like any other medical specialty, travel medicine is very specific to each individual. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention post recommendations that serve as guidelines. But to adequately counsel someone who is traveling and recommend the proper protection, the travel medicine specialist must consider all variables that might affect the traveler. These include health history, prior vaccinations, specific activities, length of stay, seasonality and altitude, among others.
A PREPARED TRAVELER
Your staff is comfortable discussing high-end tour packages to exotic locations like Vietnam, Tanzania, Brazil and Peru. You focus on the incredible sites and activities the traveler can enjoy. After explaining that travelers should consult a travel medicine specialist, you should be able to articulate why it is important to do so. Remember, vaccinations are but one piece of a traveler’s health. Many diseases only are preventable through education; the traveler needs to know what he/she must do to stay well.
The client books a first-time safari experience in Tanzania. While at the hotel, despite the travel medicine specialist’s recommendations, the traveler accidently ingests some water while brushing his teeth. In a few hours he develops a painful and serious case of traveler’s diarrhea. He immediately knows the steps to take. Within hours he is feeling fine, and his schedule has not been derailed. If it wasn’t for the referral of the tour operator, the traveler would not have gotten the pre-travel advice and would not have had the necessary tools to deal with a common ailment that can interfere with a trip or, even worse, become fatal.
AN UNPREPARED TRAVELER
You or your staff does not feel comfortable discussing with clients the need to visit a travel medicine specialist prior to their trips to an exotic location. You are concerned that if you mention travel health to clients, they will get scared or turned off and decide not to travel. The traveler books the trip and goes to Tanzania, unvaccinated, uneducated and without any medical provisions. (These provisions include first-aid kits, mosquito kits with repellants, sunscreen and permethrin, portable water purifiers and diarrhea kits.)
The traveler brushes his teeth with tap water, unaware that it takes only a few cells of Escherichia coli to infect him. In a few hours he has a severe case of traveler’s diarrhea, and he feels weak. He develops a fever, sweats and chills and does not have the energy to go on the first leg of his safari. The fever and chills continue for more than 48 hours. It gets so bad that he has to seek medical attention.
Unfortunately, the only thing available is a rural clinic where hygiene standards are inferior. (A travel medicine specialist would have recommended travel and evacuation insurance, so that the traveler is guided or transported to a hospital which has been vetted and meets U.S. standards.) Although the traveler receives antibiotics, he has lost three of the 10 days of his vacation. When he comes home he does not speak of the wonderful parks he visited or the majestic vistas he witnessed. Instead, he tells the story of how miserable he was, stuck in his hotel room for two days suffering from terrible abdominal pains, diarrhea and fever and how frightening it was seeking medical attention in a sub-standard clinic from people who did not speak his language.
A FAMILY DOCTOR IS NOT ENOUGH
Travel health, security and having an evacuation plan if necessary are as important as having airline tickets, visas and passports. Relying on a family practitioner or a primary care doctor is not enough either. Remember, travel medicine is its own specialty. One has to dedicate his/her entire practice in order to be able to keep up with the changes that occur every day. For example, some drugs build resistance over time, and the travel medicine specialist has to keep up with the changing environment in order to prescribe the correct malaria prophylaxes.
Outbreaks also occur on a daily basis, and unless the provider constantly is receiving information from people on the ground in the hot-spot areas, there is no way that a primary care physician can be on top of the information.
Founded in 1994, Passport Health is a leading provider of travel health information and immunizations for international travelers, major corporations, universities and other international organizations. Its nationwide staff is comprised of professionals that include board-certified physicians and registered nurses who have completed rigorous training in the field of travel medicine and immunology. Passport Health currently operates 190 locations in 36 states.
For more information on where to locate travel medicine specialists
throughout the United States, visit www.passporthealthusa.com or call 888.499.7277. To learn more about protecting your travelers’ health, plan to attend Jorge Castillo’s session
Wednesday, Dec. 7, 3:15–4:30 p.m. at the NTA Convention in Las Vegas.
This article was published in the September 2011 Issue of Courier. You can view this article on page 15. http://onlinedigitalpublishing.com/publication/?i=80066&
