Occupational Travel Research Articles

Safe travels? HIV transmission among Britons travelling abroad

The aim of the study was to identify and describe the characteristics of persons born in the UK who acquire HIV infection abroad. Analyses using case reports and follow-up data from the national HIV database held at the Health Protection Agency were performed. Fifteen per cent (2066 of 13 891) of UK-born adults diagnosed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland between 2002 and 2010 acquired HIV infection abroad. Thailand (534), the USA (117) and South Africa (108) were the countries most commonly reported. As compared with UK-born adults acquiring HIV infection in the UK, those acquiring HIV infection abroad were significantly (P < 0.01) more likely to have acquired it heterosexually (70% vs. 22%, respectively), to be of older age at diagnosis (median 42 years vs. 36 years, respectively), and to have reported sex with a commercial sex worker (5.6% vs. 1%, respectively). Among men infected in Thailand, 11% reported sex with a commercial sex worker. A substantial number of UK-born adults are acquiring HIV infection in countries with generalized HIV epidemics, and in common holiday destinations. Of particular concern is the high proportion of men infected reporting sex with a commercial sex worker. We recommend HIV prevention and testing efforts be extended to include travellers abroad, and that sexual health advice be provided routinely in travel health consultations and in occupational health travel advice packs, particularly to those travelling to high HIV prevalence areas and destinations for sex tourism. Safer sex messages should include an awareness of the potential detrimental health and social impacts of the sex industry.

The UK WTC 9/11 evacuation study: an overview of findings derived from first‐hand interview data and computer modelling

SUMMARYThis paper briefly describes the methodologies employed in the collection and storage of first‐hand accounts of evacuation experiences derived from face‐to‐face interviews with evacuees from the World Trade Centre (WTC) Twin Towers complex on 11 September 2001 and the development of the High‐rise Evacuation Evaluation Database (HEED). The main focus of the paper is to present an overview of the preliminary analysis of data derived from the evacuation of the North Tower with an emphasis on frequency of occupant stoppages on stairs, occupant stair travel speeds and occupant response times. The paper also describes some of the evacuation modelling analyses of the evacuation of the North Tower undertaken as part of project HEED. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Sign Visibility for Pedestrians Assessed with Agent-Based Simulation

As cities and urban centers become bigger and as building spaces become larger, the need for correctly designed and located signage becomes paramount. The geometry of these urban or architectural spaces is becoming more complex because of traffic flow in multiple directions, several obstructions, and nonconvex spaces. The complex architecture makes the determination of the optimal locations for the placement of signs in these spaces more difficult. This paper provides a framework for the rational location of signs in public spaces to increase their detectability through the consideration of the geometric configuration of the space, the occupant or pedestrian travel flow patterns, the locations of obstructions, the legibility distance, and the sign design. The framework used an agent-based simulation model, in which occupants or pedestrians were modeled as intelligent agents that moved in the space according to predefined traffic patterns. The social force model was used to simulate the microscopic movement behavior of the agents in the space. In addition, the perceptual attention of the pedestrians was modeled by consideration of the field of view of the agents as well as sign location and design. A computer simulation model was developed and tested in a real-life case study to demonstrate the applicability of the model. The research presented here should be of interest to practicing architects and engineers as well as researchers.

Occupational travel

This review summarizes the available evidence on travel-related illness and injury for overseas travellers and, where available, evaluates the literature on occupational travellers. The studies evaluated include those published in international scientific literature since 1980 and were identified through a search of relevant databases using selected keywords. A high proportion of travellers experience health problems. While the majority of problems are minor, they can cause disruption to travel plans, and a small proportion can result in hospital admission or death. Data on occupational travellers are limited but reveal similar findings, although higher rates of illness and injury are often reported and psychological factors appear to be more prominent. This is particularly the case for expatriates. While data on general travellers can be used to make valid inferences about the travel-related illness or injury in occupational travellers, there are some important differences between the two groups, which need to be considered when making comparisons. Further research in this area is required to evaluate the additional risks to those who travel overseas for work.

Häufige Reisekrankheiten – Konsequenzen für die Zusammenstellung der Reiseapotheke

Aufgrund einer Zunahme des internationalen Reiseverkehrs, des Abenteuertourismus und beruflich bedingten Reisen sind Reisende in tropische und subtropische Regionen erhöhten Gesundheitsgefahren ausgesetzt. Zentrale Bedeutung haben hier insbesondere Infektionskrankheiten, die einerseits durch bekannte Erreger, aber auch durch neue, bislang nicht entdeckte Erreger verursacht werden können. Durch prophylaktische Maßnahmen, wie z. B. durch zweckmäßiges Verhalten des Reisenden, durch Impfungen, durch Schutzmaßnahmen gegen Arthropodenstiche und durch die vorbeugende Einnahme von Medikamenten kann ein Infektions- und Erkrankungsrisiko deutlich reduziert werden. In einigen Fällen lässt sich auch durch rasche Selbstbehandlungsmaßnahmen der Krankheitsverlauf günstig beeinflussen.

Travelling for work: Seeking advice in South Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is a common destination for occupational travellers from South Africa. Adequate preventive measures require timeous medical consultation before travel. A secondary analysis of datasets of over 8000 occupational travellers who visited travel clinics in South Africa indicated that 82% were travelling to African countries and over 50% consulted less than a week before travel. For the 70% who consult less than 10 days before departure, yellow fever certificates issued at consultation would not be valid for entry to endemic countries, although they may be protected from contracting yellow fever. The 'last minute' travel medicine consultation appears to be more common in South Africa than in Europe and North America. This may preclude South African health professionals from providing occupational travellers adequate disease prevention, particularly against vaccine-preventable infectious diseases.

Riding Waves of Resonance: Morphogenic Fields and Collaborative Research with Australian Travelling Communities

This article explores the theme of collaboration in relation to biochemist Rupert Sheldrake’s concept of morphogenic fields. We contend that this idea, with its emphasis on the role of resonance in generating self-organising systems and cooperative action, has application for our research into the culture and educational experiences of Australian travelling communities.

Improvement and Evaluation of Cell-Transmission Model for Operational Analysis of Traffic Networks

The cell-transmission model (CTM), developed by Daganzo in 1994, has not been fully exploited as an operations model for analysis of large-scale traffic networks. Because of its macroscopic and mesoscopic features, CTM offers calibration and computational advantages over microscopic models. This paper demonstrates specific improvements to the original form of CTM to increase its accuracy and realism of traffic flow representation. These improvements include modifications to provide flexibility in selection of cell lengths, noninteger movements of vehicles between cells, and algorithmic enhancements in the merging and diverging logics. The effect of such improvements on the performance of CTM was evaluated independently and comparatively. A sample freeway network of the I-10 corridor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was used to evaluate and compare the performance of the improved version of CTM versus CORSIM under heavily congested traffic conditions. The results showed comparable performance of both platforms in terms of link occupancy (density) and total network travel time.

Three pedagogies of mobility for Australian show people: Teaching about, through and towards the questioning of sedentarism

Questions concerning the education of mobile groups help to highlight the lived experiences of people otherwise rendered invisible by policy actors. This includes the diverse communities of occupational Travellers—those people who regularly move in order to earn their livelihood. While the category ‘occupational Travellers’ encompasses groups as varied as defence force personnel, specialist teachers and seasonal fruit pickers, the focus here is on the people who travel the agricultural show circuits of Australia to provide the entertainment of ‘sideshow alley’. Drawing on qualitative research with the Australian show people since 1992, this article deploys the concept of ‘sedentarism’ to highlight the ambivalently valorised lived experiences and educational opportunities of the show people. In particular, the article explores the pedagogical and policy implications of efForts to disrupt and transform the marginalising impact of sedentarism, which constructs mobility as the other in relation to fixed residence.

The Effect of Pre-evacuation on Evacuation Times in the Simulex Model

The evacuation time of a building in an emergency can be broken down into a number of constituent times including the pre-evacuation time and the travel time. This paper examines how distributions of pre-evacuation times affect the occupant travel time and hence their effect on the evacuation time in the Simulex model. A simple scenario is assessed mathematically and compared with the results from Simulex with further simulations carried out on a somewhat more complex scenario. Because we expect the pre-evacuation time to be characterized by a distribution of values, simply adding the maximum pre-evacuation time and the movement time over-estimates the evacuation time. Furthermore, when the preevacuation distribution is small the travelling and queuing effects dominate the simulated evacuation time. When the pre-evacuation distribution is large, then travel and queuing effects are not so important and it is the pre-evacuation time that dominates. Finally, the paper examines some aspects of the Simulex model in situations where there is a high occupant density in a space.

Partnerships depend on power-sharing: an exploration of the relationships between Fairground and Gypsy Traveller parents and their children's teachers in England

In England opportunities for Traveller children to gain access to mainstream schools have increased substantially over the past thirty years. Parents have been increasingly willing to put their children into schools, while education outreach services have developed in parallel to facilitate regular attendance. Local authority based Traveller Education Support Service (TESS) projects have been the strategy most frequently used for this outreach work, the success of which depends largely on the quality of the parent/teacher relationships. Is it possible for conditions to exist that will enable real partnerships between parents and teachers to develop? As the coordinator of one of the oldest TESSs, the author answers this crucial question by drawing on participant observation, formal interviews and policy documents, as well as comparative projects with other partners in the European Federation for the Education of the Children of the Occupational Travellers (EFECOT).

Cofactors for the acquisition of HIV-1 among heterosexual men: prospective cohort study of trucking company workers in Kenya.

To determine the prevalence, incidence, and correlates of HIV-1 infection in a cohort of east African trucking company employees. HIV-1-seronegative trucking company employees were enrolled in a prospective cohort study and evaluated at 3 monthly intervals for HIV-1 seroconversion, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual behavior. The baseline seroprevalence of HIV-1 among 1500 trucking company employees was 17.8%. Among 752 HIV-1-seronegative men who were followed, the HIV-1 annual seroincidence was 3.1%. In univariate analysis, HIV-1 acquisition was associated with age under 25 years, 10 years or less of sexual activity, occupation as a driver/driver's assistant, occupational travel for more than 14 days per month, religion other than Christian or Muslim, uncircumcised status, sex with a prostitute, sex with a girlfriend/casual partner, extramarital sex, and enrollment seropositivity to Treponema pallidum, Haemophilus ducreyi, and Herpes simplex virus type 2 (all P values < or = 0.05). Using multivariate analysis, HIV-1 acquisition was independently associated with 10 years or less of sexual activity (hazard rate ratio (HRR) 2.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0-4.3), occupation as a driver/driver's assistant (HRR 3.9, 95% CI 1.7-9.0), religion other than Christian or Muslim (HRR 6.1, 95% CI 1.4-25.7), uncircumcised status (HRR 2.3, 95% CI 1.0-5.0), and unprotected sex with a prostitute (HRR 2.8, 95% CI 1.1-7.0). Trucking company employees had a high HIV-1 seroprevalence rate at enrollment and a high HIV-1 seroincidence during follow-up. Risk factors for HIV-1 seroconversion included years of sexual activity, occupation, religion, uncircumcised status, and unprotected sex with a prostitute. This population is an appropriate target for HIV-1 prevention trials and behavioral interventions.

TOPILOT: an application of new technology for distance learning

Provides a brief introduction to TOPILOT, a telematics project sponsored by the European Community and developed as a response to the needs of children and young people from the families of “occupational travellers”, the fairground, circus and bargee communities within Europe. Produces multimedia learning materials to be used by young learners as they travel with the business and is also developing an innovative telecommunication system which will use mobile telephone technology to allow tutors to monitor progress, and manage learning at a distance, by interacting directly with the disk‐based multimedia materials. Describes the technological approach and discusses another interesting feature of the project: the direct involvement of practising tutors from four European countries in design and testing activity. Highlights in particular the use of the Internet within the design process and suggests that there are important limitations reflected in the experience of TOPILOT.

Antibody to Haemophilus ducreyi among trucking company workers in Kenya.

To determine the prevalence, correlates, and incidence of Haemophilus ducreyi antibodies, a cohort of East African trucking company employees was evaluated. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-seronegative men working in six trucking companies in Mombasa, Kenya, were evaluated with a questionnaire and serologic testing for antibodies to H. ducreyi and other sexually transmitted pathogens. Men who were initially H. ducreyi seronegative were retested at 1 year of follow-up. The H. ducreyi seroprevalence among 501 men at enrollment was 26.5%. Seropositivity was significantly associated with older age, married status, years of active sex life, number of sex partners in the past year, history of unprotected sex with a prostitute in the past year, and history of alcohol intake (all P values < 0.01). Occupational travel for more than 14 days per month was also significantly associated with H. ducreyi seropositivity (odds ratio [OR] 2.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3-3.2). Using multivariate analysis, H. ducreyi seropositivity was independently associated with age, married status, history of sex with a prostitute, and history of alcohol intake. Presence of H. ducreyi antibodies was significantly associated with seropositivity to the other major genital ulcerative pathogens, Treponema pallidum (OR 4.3, 95% CI 2.2-8.3), herpes simplex virus type 2 (OR 4.9, 95% CI 2.0-11.5), and Chlamydia trachomatis (OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.5-6.9). These associations remained significant after adjusting for demographic and exposure variables. The incidence of seroconversion to H. ducreyi antibodies was 3.6 per 100 person years. Serologic evidence of H. ducreyi infection was common among male trucking company employees. H. ducreyi seropositivity is an objective marker of high-risk behavior and is associated with serologic evidence of other ulcerative sexually transmitted diseases.

Bilateral Pleural-Based Densities in a Patient with Hip Pain

A 55-year-old white woman presented with a twomonth history of increasing dyspnea and dry cough. The week prior to admission, the patient noted the onset of pleuritic chest pain without associated fever, chills, sputum production or hemoptysis. She had no significant occupational exposures, travel or smoking history. Five months prior to admission, the patient had noted mild “arthritic” pain in her right hip which had resolved entirely with aspirin therapy, which she had since discontinued. Physical examination revealed a thin white woman in mild respiratory distress. The blood pressure was 140/80 mm Hg without paradox; pulse rate, 90/mm; respiratory rate, 26/mm; and temperature, 37.5#{176}C. Bilateral dry inspiratory crackles were heard at the bases. Results of cardiac and abdominal examinations were normal. The extremities showed no cyanosis, clubbing or edema. The neurologic exam was entirely normal.

An assessment of the 1982 traffic fatality decrease

United States traffic fatalities dropped dramatically from 49,301 in 1981 to an estimated 43,721 in 1982. Fatalities are at their lowest level in 20 yr, and fatalities per mile of travel are the lowest ever recorded. A decrease of similar magnitude occurred only in 1974, when the oil crisis, the national 55 mph speed limit, and depressed economic conditions disrupted the nation's driving habits. In 1982 the potential explanations are more difficult to observe and test. This paper examines several factors which may have contributed to the 1982 changes, including alcohol programs, occupant restraint use, demographic shifts, economic conditions, and travel patterns. Each factor's effect is assessed, though available data do not permit precise quantification. Implications of these findings for 1983 and beyond are discussed.