GEOSENTINEL and Thai Travel Clinic
A Global Watch for the Spread of Infectious Diseases
Since 2006, Thai Travel Clinic of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases has been an active participant in a growing elite network of health care providers chosen to monitor the global spread of infectious diseases.
The recognition that travel is a leading player in the spread of diseases such as SARS stimulated the formation of a worldwide network of travel and tropical medicine clinics dedicated to following global patterns of illness. The GeoSentinel network now consists of 54 strategically placed clinics on 6 continents, and since 1995 has been a major initiative of its parent medical society, the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM).
As a GeoSentinel surveillance site, Thai Travel Clinic of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases was chosen for their expertise in the evaluation and management of special groups of patients: returning travelers who are ill, immigrants, refugees and foreign visitors. Linking information regarding illnesses acquired from various geographic locations in certain time periods helps to define trends in the movement of diseases, and could help to identify new agents, or emerging diseases.
Using web-conferencing, GeoSentinel sites worldwide share information in real-time and formulate coordinated strategies during times of public health crisis. GeoSentinel also has the capacity to send alerts to its sites, to public health authorities, and to over 2,000 ISTM members in over 58 countries. Another major benefit of the network has been the establishment of worldwide partners in public health. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through a cooperative agreement with the ISTM, has been a major provider of expertise and financial resources for this growing project.
More information visit Geosentinel official website: www.geosentinel.org
