{"title":"Travel in the Time of COVID: A Review of International Travel Health in a Global Pandemic.","authors":"Gerard T Flaherty, Davidson H Hamer, Lin H Chen","doi":"10.1007/s11908-022-00784-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose of review: </strong>This review critically considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global travel and the practice of travel medicine, highlights key innovations that have facilitated the resumption of travel, and anticipates how travel medicine providers should prepare for the future of international travel.</p><p><strong>Recent findings: </strong>Since asymptomatic transmission of the virus was first recognized in March 2020, extensive efforts have been made to characterize the pattern and dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 transmission aboard commercial aircraft, cruise ships, rail and bus transport, and in mass gatherings and quarantine facilities. Despite the negative impact of further waves of COVID-19 driven by the more transmissible Omicron variant, rapid increases of international tourist arrivals are occurring and modeling anticipates further growth. Mitigation of spread requires an integrated approach that combines masking, physical distancing, improving ventilation, testing, and quarantine. Vaccines and therapeutics have played a significant role in reopening society and accelerating the resumption of travel and further therapeutic innovation is likely.</p><p><strong>Summary: </strong>COVID-19 is likely to persist as an endemic infection, and surveillance will assume an even more important role. The pandemic has provided an impetus to advance technology for telemedicine, to adopt mobile devices and GPS in contact tracing, and to apply digital applications in research. The future of travel medicine should continue to harness these novel platforms in the clinical, research, and educational arenas.</p>","PeriodicalId":48839,"journal":{"name":"Current Infectious Disease Reports","volume":"24 10","pages":"129-145"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9361911/pdf/","citationCount":"12","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current Infectious Disease Reports","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-022-00784-3","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2022/8/4 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"INFECTIOUS DISEASES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 12
Abstract
Purpose of review: This review critically considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global travel and the practice of travel medicine, highlights key innovations that have facilitated the resumption of travel, and anticipates how travel medicine providers should prepare for the future of international travel.
Recent findings: Since asymptomatic transmission of the virus was first recognized in March 2020, extensive efforts have been made to characterize the pattern and dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 transmission aboard commercial aircraft, cruise ships, rail and bus transport, and in mass gatherings and quarantine facilities. Despite the negative impact of further waves of COVID-19 driven by the more transmissible Omicron variant, rapid increases of international tourist arrivals are occurring and modeling anticipates further growth. Mitigation of spread requires an integrated approach that combines masking, physical distancing, improving ventilation, testing, and quarantine. Vaccines and therapeutics have played a significant role in reopening society and accelerating the resumption of travel and further therapeutic innovation is likely.
Summary: COVID-19 is likely to persist as an endemic infection, and surveillance will assume an even more important role. The pandemic has provided an impetus to advance technology for telemedicine, to adopt mobile devices and GPS in contact tracing, and to apply digital applications in research. The future of travel medicine should continue to harness these novel platforms in the clinical, research, and educational arenas.
期刊介绍:
This journal intends to provide clear, insightful, balanced contributions by international experts that review the most important, recently published clinical findings related to the diagnosis, treatment, management, and prevention of infectious disease.
We accomplish this aim by appointing international authorities to serve as Section Editors in key subject areas, such as HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, tropical and travel medicine, and urinary tract infections. Section Editors, in turn, select topics for which leading experts contribute comprehensive review articles that emphasize new developments and recently published papers of major importance, highlighted by annotated reference lists.