Message from the President
Dear Fellow Member,
Since my last message in NewShare, the world and travel medicine have been slowly recovering from the events of 9/11. Now we are influenced by the tragedy taking place in the Middle East. Again, the travel industry has been seriously affected, the result of feelings of uncertainty, and concern about possible retaliations.
In the last four months of 2001 the World Tourism Organisation reported a decrease of about 24% in international arrivals in North America, the Middle East and South Asia. Since the beginning of 2002, travel is increasing again, and we are seeing more travelers coming to our clinics. This shows how volatile the travel industry is and how quickly countries depending on tourism revenues can be badly hit. The same applies to travel medicine doctors and nurses whose source of revenue depends on this kind of client.
Let me give you an update on the Society. First, the May 2003 New York conference: both the organizers, Brad Connor in particular, and the scientific committee chairs and co-chairs have been extremely active over the last few months. A very attractive program is being set up and should be finalized after being reviewed by the executive board mid-May in Florence. Organization-wise, things are moving fast and several initiatives have been taken to make this venue as successful as our last conference in Innsbruck. It will be very different from the Alpine beauty of Innsbruck, as it will be held in Times Square, at the very heart of this unique city. This conference will certainly be inspired by the spirit of New York, and its place as a city of departure and arrival on the American continent.
When the chairs and co-chairs of the scientific committee met in New York in early April, we visited Ellis Island. This is an island off the southern tip of Manhattan. It is at Ellis Island where about 19 million immigrants arrived in America and had medical examinations before being allowed into the country. Up to 5000 newcomers a day were screened. Also known then as the Island of Hope, the screening center closed in the 1950s. Ellis Island is now a museum, devoted to the history of immigration and its health-related aspects. It is a very impressive place to visit. For travel medicine professionals, it can be seen as marking the beginnings of health services monitoring large population movements, and the health-related problems inherent to human mobility. Immigrants were certainly not tourists, but they were bringing with them all the questions and issues of prevention and treatment related to mobility.
A week after visiting Ellis Island, I had the opportunity to visit Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and participate in the first conference on travel medicine ever organised there. In this very different environment, health professionals are also facing the impact of human mobility. Affluent Saudi travelers visit Europe, North America and other parts of the world, and experience the standard health problems that we see in our travelers. Simultaneously, every year two million pilgrims visit Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. They come from all over the world, generating the most formidable mixing of germs, cultures and mentalities, all in a matter of a few days. How can the situation be controlled? How should epidemics be prevented and care provided for those in need during the pilgrimage? Unique and very impressive expertise has been developed by Saudi doctors confronting these issues.
When we discussed travel medicine in Saudi Arabia, we also had to talk about migrants and foreign workers coming there and to the neighbouring Gulf States. Close to half of the 22 million resident population of Saudi Arabia comes from North Africa, Southeast or Southern Asia. Again, these are difficult health problems that must be handled in an efficient and adequate manner. This is a further demonstration that travel medicine cannot concentrate exclusively on tourists and affluent travelers if it is to tackle in a professional way contemporary realities of global mobility of populations and individuals. It is important to use a broader perspective, as lessons learned for one group of travelers can then be used for another group. In North America and Europe, for example, an increasing number - in some cases the majority - of imported cases of malaria are seen in foreign-born residents who have returned home to visit friends and relatives. The situation is the same for tuberculosis and hepatitis A seen in foreign-born residents. Therefore, even those diseases which most concern travel medicine are increasingly found amongst migrants, a high risk category of traveler.
Other members of the Society are working hard with Professor Lin Jianway to prepare the October 2002 conference in Shanghai. It will be the first conference on travel medicine held in China, organized by the Asia Pacific Travel Health Society, with the support of the ISTM. The program will cover broad issues in travel medicine, but will concentrate on the issues unique to this part of the world. This conference will well complement our biennial conference. Finally in May, the 3rd European Conference on Travel Medicine will be held in Florence, Italy, on the theme of « Travel and Epidemics ». These three major events illustrate that travel medicine is certainly very much alive, as is your society!
I am convinced that in order to grow and expand, the ISTM needs to consider and address the needs of all types of travelers: tourists and businessmen, students and expatriates, migrants and refugees. We have already included in the ISTM bylaws that the ISTM aims to promote"the protection of health of travelers and migrants…". Should we consider modifying the name of our society to the International Society of Travel and Migration Medicine? Please send comment to NewShare.
Dr Louis Loutan
President of the ISTM
