TRAVEL MEDICINE 0891-5520/98 $8.00 zy + .OO THE SEXUAL HEALTH OF TRAVELERS Sarah Hawkes, MBBS and Graham Hart, PhD Together with travel, sex is one of the world's most common forms of pleasure. Not infrequently, the two activities coincide. Tourism and travel-related activities currently constitute one of the worlds largest industries, with many millions of people undertaking journeys for either business or pleasure every year. In 1993, citizens of the United.Kingdom (population 55 million) went on zy 36 million visits abroad, and 19 million foreigners visited the United Kingdom." Worldwide the figures are clearly much higher. Furthermore, millions of people throughout the world are forced to travel in search of work (the International Labour Organization estimates there are 30 million migrant workers world- wide15) or as a consequence of war or natural and man-made disasters, which result in the displacement of entire populations as refugees. This article concentrates on the risks and consequences of unsafe sexual activity as practiced by the general traveling public while abroad. The special needs of other mobile populations (refugees and migrant workers, for example) are not explored. Furthermore, the zyxwv risks associated with new sexual partnerships while traveling in a home country are not discussed, although it should be remembered that travelers having new, unprotected sexual relations are at risk whether these occur outside their own country or closer to home. From a biomedical viewpoint, unsafe sexual practices carry a number of risks. Un- planned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are probably the most important of the potential adverse outcomes. It should not be forgotten, however, that sexual activity is a normal part of human existence, and for many people the benefits of sexual intercourse (feelings of pleasure, closeness, excitement, for example) far outweigh any perceived risks. The contribution of STIs to the global burden of disease is increasingly being recognized.40 STIs and other infections of the reproductive tract have long From the Reproductive Tract Infection Project, International Centre for Diarrhoea1 Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh; and Department of Clinical Sciences, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England (SH); and Medical Research Council Medical Sociology Unit, Giasgow, Scotland (GH) INFECTIOUS DISEASE CLINICS OF NORTH AMERICA VOLUME 12 NUMBER 2 * zyxwvutsr JLTNE 1998 4i3