Travel medicine or emporiatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention and management of health problems of international travelers.
Globalization facilitates the spread of disease and increases the number of travelers who will be exposed to a different health environment. Major content areas of travel medicine include the global epidemiology of health risks to the traveler, vaccinology, malaria prevention, and pre-travel counseling designed to maintain the health of the approximately 600 million international travelers. It has been estimated that about 80 million travelers go annually from developed to developing countries.
Mortality studies indicate that cardiovascular disease accounts for most deaths during travel (50–70%), while injury and accident follow (~25%). Infectious disease accounts for about 2.8–4% of deaths during/from travel. Morbidity studies suggest that about half of people from a developed country who stay one month in a developing country will get sick.Traveler's diarrhea is the most common problem encountered.
The field of travel medicine encompasses a wide variety of disciplines including epidemiology, infectious disease, public health, tropical medicine, high altitude physiology, travel related obstetrics, psychiatry, occupational medicine, military and migration medicine, and environmental health.