Impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) on Travel and Population Mobility: Implications for Travel Medicine Practitioners

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, as a result of its rapid international spread, predilection for medical personnel,and relatively high case fatality ratio,captured the attention of professionals,politicians and the public worldwide. Although the number of deaths from SARS was limited to 916 worldwide, which is significantly lower than the annual mortality figures for many other infectious diseases such as influenza, HIV infection or malaria,1 it created panic among health care professionals and the public all over the world and severely disrupted businesses and travel to affected destinations. Based on figures from the World Tourism Organization (WTO), it reduced international passenger traffic by 2.6% in the first 4 months of 2003.2 Travel to Asia Pacific countries dropped by 10% to 50% in late March to April 2003,2 and this was related to the emergence of SARS. Tourist arrivals to Hong Kong in April and May, the peak SARS-affected months, dropped by 64.8% and 67.9% respectively.3 Anecdotal reports suggest that public concerns about SARS have increased travel-related enquiries to travel medicine practitioners and health care professionals. As travel medicine practiREVIEW ARTICLE