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Book Review
Travellers’ Health: How to
Stay Healthy Abroad, 4th edition
Richard Dawood, editor
Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 2002, ISBN: 0-19-262947-6, Pages:
762, Price: $19.95
Suggested citation for this article: Baxter PJ.
Travellers' health: how to stay healthy abroad. 4th ed (book review).
Emerg Infect Dis [serial online] 2003 Apr [date cited]. Available
from: URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no4/03-0005.htm
Since the first edition of this book was published in 1986, travel medicine
has flourished as a specialty, with seemingly no end to the expansion
of air travel and the number of intrepid persons seeking out remote destinations
for work or pleasure. The original edition was immediately received as
the best general guide available for health professionals who dispense
advice and medications to travelers, as well as for travelers who want
more information about potential hazards they might encounter. This fourth
edition, which is even more comprehensive and authoritative than its predecessors,
continues the original successful formula and can be unreservedly recommended
to anyone, expert or nonexpert, interested in the subject. Almost every
conceivable topic is covered in the 75 chapters, each written by an expert
or group of experts drawn mostly from the United Kingdom, with enough
contributors from the United States to provide an international dimension.
One of the most useful sections, for travelers at higher risk, focuses
on those who are pregnant, very young, elderly, and disabled, as well
as those with HIV infection. Medical practitioners will find common topics
addressed for patients with chronic, even life-threatening, conditions
who ask about their fitness to travel and receive immunizations. Expedition
health and medical kits are also well covered, and many chapters have
references or guidance on accessing more information. A variety of sporting
and recreational activities are discussed in individual chapters. Even
humanitarian workers are considered with the inclusion of a chapter on
land mines. Expatriates get a full discussion, including a warning not
to habitually complain about their servants to expatriate colleagues,
as well as a valuable section on personal security. Otherwise, the text
follows the familiar disease and disease vector chapter format with excellent
clarity and conciseness.
Acceptable online services supply up-to-date information for travelers
on country-by-country health hazards, but none can compete with Dawood’s
guide. This gold mine of information is a fascinating read for even the
armchair explorer. Travellers’ Health is the authoritative guide for regular
travelers, especially for anyone planning to live and work in foreign
climes. For the health professional, the volume also serves as an accessible
compendium of information about unfamiliar infectious diseases and environmental
hazards and their prevention. And, despite the thoroughness of its content,
the book has remained slim enough to pack away in the carry-on flight
bag.
Peter J. Baxter
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U.K.
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