Before I travel...

Challenges Entered:

People will have access to World Health Organizationâ€™s databases provided in a way that will help travellers quickly and easily obtain mashed information from the International Travel and Health Report, country information and other relevant health databases produced by the WHO on outbreaks and other health bulletins. Users will be able to provide the list of destinations and will obtain a list of vaccination requirements, recommendations, background information, current health situations, and maps that will facilitate its access and dissemination by using mash up technologies.

What else have you done in this area of work?

WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.

Project Details

Project video:

Supporting organization:

World Health Organization

Project Assessment

Financial support:

Project has financial support

Project goals:

Through this project, international travellers will be better informed about health risks in their destinations. Before they travel, they can find out if any vaccination is required for the destination country, and if there has been any recent outbreak of infectious diseases. With this information they can take appropriate precautions to protect themselves from contracting infectious diseases which can sometimes quickly pose threat to a large population.Destinations where accommodation is of poor quality, hygiene and sanitation are inadequate, medical services do not exist, and clean water is unavailable may pose serious risks for the health of travellers. In these settings, stringent precautions must be taken to avoid illness. The mashup can provide such information to travellers.The impact of this awareness can be immense considering the volume and growth of international travel. World Travel Monitor data shows that air travel now accounts for some 52% of all outbound trips globally and there were 846 million international arrivals in 2006. And holidays account for more than two-thirds of all trips.According to the World Tourism Organization (http://www1.messe-berlin.de/vip8_1/website/MesseBerlin/htdocs/www.fair.itb-berlin.de/de/Presseservice/Publikationen/WTTR.pdf) the growth in travel continues to exceed expectations; a 5.7 % increase was forecast for 2007 alone. With such increasing travel, the risk of a rapid spread of infectious diseases is real. And the strategy to prevent it has to include steps to ensure health protection of international travellers.

Identified Obstacles:

The WHO has a wealth of health information that is already available to the world, but not presented in a coherent, visual way. The organization would need technical and financial support to undertake the development and implementation of its mashup project.