This differs from previous approaches to VFR travelers based on indirect factors for health risk (eg, administrative category of migrant, country of birth, destination), factors that may not be directly relevant to the determination

of adverse health or disease outcomes. The increased complexity in managing risk during assessments of travelers and travel-associated outcomes challenge the adequacy of the traditional VFR traveler definition. Issues contributing to these complex challenges are the rapid urbanization and socioeconomic development occurring globally, urbanization and focal socioeconomic selleck inhibitor development occurring in both economically advanced and developing countries, and the increased accessibility, availability, and affordability of high-speed BGJ398 mouse international travel. A challenge in the existing approach to the definition of the VFR traveler has been the focus on ethnicity and the traveler’s birthplace. Although both may contribute to the potential for adverse health outcomes during travel, our knowledge of the complexity of risk assessment and health determination has improved beyond these two constructs. The concept

of an ethnically identifiable and distinct immigrant individual who returns to visit family or friends in an economically developing country becomes more difficult to identify and less precise Endonuclease in risk applications. The perception of risk is also a significant determinant of how travelers approach personal protection and safety. This is a very challenging area of travel medicine practice

as previous experience, the media, international agencies, and other factors play a significant role in the belief that one may be at risk or in how to manage that risk.7–9 As the world evolves under the processes of globalization and travel between regions becomes more varied and diffuse, a different approach to assessing health risks during travel can now be applied. The new definitional framework for identifying and defining the VFR traveler requires that the intended purpose of travel is to visit friends or relatives; and there is an epidemiological gradient of health risk between the two locations based on an assessment of the determinants of health, including traveler behavior, socioeconomic status, genetic-biological attributes, and environmental exposures.