Tourism and the Health Effects of Infectious Diseases: Are There Potential Risks for Tourists? [Summary]

Travelers should be considered an integral part of the global surveillance network for emerging infections. Research and the knowledge gained can be used to alert the global community to the presence or susceptibility patterns of pathogens in different regions; inform strategies that can be used to control infections in developing countries; and prepare travelers to those areas and guide the care of those returning. One major lesson from the Ebola outbreak was for the world to respond much more quickly than before to epidemics. The containment and preparedness efforts dramatically limited the potential impact of Ebola on the African economy, compared to earlier worst-case scenarios. This demonstrates why all countries, developing and developed, should make investing in pandemic preparedness a top priority. It points to the need for a global pandemic emergency financing facility that will enable the world to respond much more quickly and effectively to any future deadly outbreaks, and avoid the tragic and unnecessary human and economic costs that have resulted from the Ebola epidemic. "This article summary is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY).