Pediatric Travel Medicine: Where We Are and Where We Hope to Go

Abstract

Pediatrics is a large and integral part of travel medicine and is growing.1,2 Three recent developments in travel medicine regarding children merit discussion: (1) the increase in the number of articles whose main focus is children, as illustrated in this issue of the Journal of Travel Medicine ( JTM ); 3–5 (2) the launching of a Pediatric Interest Group within the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM); 6 and (3) the results of an informal survey of ISTM members showing that most of the responders are “less than comfortable” in caring for young children.7 Articles such as the ones in this issue of JTM will help practitioners feel more comfortable in dealing with children, both pre‐ and post‐travel. Virtually all travel medicine practitioners, regardless of their primary speciality and areas of interest—and whether they welcome it or not—are frequently confronted with pediatric‐related issues.7 They see children in their offices as part of families going overseas. Parents are taking their children on work assignments in remote areas of the world, on pleasure trips to high altitude destinations, on safaris, or back to the country where the parents, and sometimes the children, were born. Teenagers visit developing countries on work projects and university students spend school semesters studying overseas. Travel medicine is a unique speciality, one that goes against general trends in medicine. The separation of medicine into well‐defined specialities is well established. And these specialities are splintering further into ever more sub‐entities. As an example, within pediatrics, there are pediatric neuro‐ophthalmologists. While such specialized care is essential in certain circumstances, it narrows the focus of the care away from the person … Corresponding Author: Karl Neumann, MD, FAAP, Forest Hills Pediatrics, 108‐48 70th Road, Forest Hills, NY 11375, USA. E‐mail: travhealth{at}aol.com