TRAVELLERS’ KNOWLEDGE ON INFECTIOUS DISEASES A SURVEY STUDY ABOUT TRAVEL HEALTH AMONG AIRPORT TRAVELLERS IN ALBANIA

Travel infectious diseases are a health, social and economic issue. Their assessment is getting difficult seeing the growing number of people traveling and the diversity of their destinations hence the importance of collecting the information on travel infectious diseases and their access to this information. For this study, it was gathered and processed data obtained from Albanian travellers departing from Tirana International Airport from July to September 2015. To the citizens were given a questionnaire with fourteen closed questions about their actual information on infectious diseases and their access to new information. Six hundred and six persons responded. 54 % of respondents were women. The majority of the participants in the survey were in the age group of 20-40 years old. The survey showed that almost 44 % of respondents claimed to have heard about infectious disease when traveling and only 70.9 % of them had further information about prevention. The majority of respondents pointed at internet and friends as their most reliable sources of information rather than medical care centres. When asked if they had sought their doctor's advice before traveling, only 26 % of the responses were positive. In conclusion, the survey showed that the majority of Albanian travellers have general information about infectious diseases and most of this information comes from unreliable, non-official sources. Results suggest strategies to better inform people about travel diseases when traveling.