Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Wildlife and Disease
According to Re and Gluckman (2003) between 15% and 37% of short-term interna-
tional travelers experience some sort of health problem while on holiday and many of
these are related to illnesses from animal bites. In an Australian study nearly 40% of
all returning international travelers presenting to one hospital with a fever had a dis-
ease resulting from a mosquito bite or transmitted by insect bites from wildlife in the
destination (O’Brien et al., 2001). In a similar study in Norway, 4% of a sample of 940
travelers to Africa returned to Norway with African tick bite fever, while in one year
in Sweden 107 cases of dengue fever (transmitted by mosquitoes) were diagnosed in
returning international travelers (Lindback et al., 2003).
Table 1 lists some of the more common diseases passed from animals to humans
either through direct contact or through insect bites. Comprehensive statistics are
not easily accessible as there are few standard systems for recording these diseases
and many minor instances that require little medical attention may go unreported.
Generally, however, there is agreement that growth in tourism to wildlife areas,
particularly in developing countries, is associated with an increasing incidence of
these zoonotic diseases in returning international travelers (Choi, 2003; Gill et al.,
2000; Jensenius et al., 2003; Lindback et al., 2003; Moore et al., 2002; Spira, 2003;
Wilde et al., 2003).
Wildlife Attacks
In addition to the diseases that can be passed through animal bites, many bites
themselves can result in extensive injury and death. In one discussion of travel
related diseases, for example, allergic and painful reactions to insect and spider
bites are included as a separate category of travel disease (Spira, 2003), and
although Armour and Macdonald (1998) note that there are multiple causes of ani-
mal related fatalities in their Canadian study, they still reported 41 fatal wildlife
attacks on humans in the 28-year period under study. These were broken down into
19 bear attacks, 5 cougar attacks, 1 snakebite, and 16 insect bites or stings.
Tourists and Wildlife: When Encounters Go Wrong
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