Thai Travel Clinic

 Research Project: 

Incidence of traveler’s diarrhea among adult foreign travelers in Thailand 

Background of the research 

Diarrhea is the most common health problems reported among travelers during their trips in developing countries. Previous studies showed the reported attack rates was around 30-60%. However, many details informtaion of travelers' diarrhea are remain unknown especially the relation between the travel day and the first event of diarrhea. It is logical to assume that travelers who will eventually develop travelers' diarrhea are likely to experience first episode of diarrhea during the early phase of their trip. However this assumption has never been confirmed before. Therefore, this prospective research will be very important and will help us understand travelers' diarrhea better. 

People who may participate in this research are as follows:

1. International travelers with age equal or more than 18 years

2. Arrived Thailand not more than 7 days

3. Can speak English

4. Did not have diarrhea in the first 6 hours after arrival in Thailand

5. Willing to participate in this research

6. Attend one of our research sites: travel clinic/fever clinic of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases or Immunization and Travel Clinic: Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, Thai Red Cross Society

Note:  Participate in this study is completely voluntary. Participate/Not participant in this research has no effect to any service/medical care you may receive in our clinic/hospital. 

Research methodology

           During your visitin in our travel clinic, you may be invited to join the research. If you agree to be a voluntter, you will be interviewed  about your general information and travel characteristics. This is just a basic information about your trip which may be the factora that affect the incidence of travelers's diarrhea. Then, during your trip, you will be followed up with a questionnaire via email or telephone on day 7, 14 and 28 after the first day that you arrived Thailand. The follow up questionnaire will be asked about traveler's diarrhea you may experience during their trip. After we've done the data analysis, we could understand and answer some questions about travelers diarrhea, such as how many percent of travelers actually have diarrhea during their trips? And what is the most common peroid that travelers might experience diarrhea.

            This research is a part of the Residency Training in Travel Medicine and the Master Degree of Clinical Tropical Medicine (MCTM) course. The principle investigator of this research is Dr.Chollasap Sharma.

Food from street vendor is generally safe, if it is clean and properly cooked

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