Healthy Travel Tips

For Dr. Stuart Rose, an emergency room physician and book author from Massachusetts, the first edition of his book, International Travel Health Guidewas born out of sheer frustration. Many of Rose’s patients were planning to travel abroad but had no concise source of travel health information to take along with them. Moreover, for travelers visiting less developed countries, the information available was often insufficient and outdated. Now, Rose has expanded his expertise with www.travmed.com, a website that provides vacationers, business travelers and outdoor enthusiasts with a complete source for all things related to healthy travel. The website, which is updated daily, includes destination reports for over 200 countries─each report includes information such as time zone, vaccination requirements, disease risk summaries, outbreak news, malaria maps, embassy contact information, and a list of hospitals and physicians; a travel clinic directory with an updated list of clinics in the United States, Canada and overseas; an online version of the International Travel Health Guide, and essential products for the global traveler such as medical kids, survival tools, packing solutions, insect bite protection, and more. The site also includes essential links for the global traveler and offers International SOS travel insurance with a 20% discount for those who purchase a policy through the website. Rose notes that as many as 70% of travelers report an illness or impairment when traveling abroad. “Many of the illnesses associated with traveling out of the county, such as malaria, hepatitis and even travelers’ diarrhea, are preventable,” says Dr. Rose. “It’s important to help reduce some of the risks by doing your homework ahead of time.”