Linked to Medical Tourism in the World Infectious Diseases
Chapter from the book:
Bayram,
A.
T.
(ed.)
2023.
Researches on Tourism.
Synopsis
When health tourism was popular, medical travel was made from developing countries to developed countries. Medical tourists from developed countries such as the USA and the UK are now traveling to developing countries. Countries such as Thailand, India, Mexico, Turkey and the Dominican Republic are among the top choices of medical tourists. Especially US citizens prefer countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic for aesthetic procedures (liposuction, tummy tuck, breast augmentation and breast reduction) that are not covered by health insurance. Medical tourists save more than half thanks to these trips. Saving money may not always produce good results. It has been determined that medical tourists who travel both to save money and to have medical procedures face some risks. In the literature, many patients who experience problems after aesthetic operations are reported. The reason for this is determined to be lack of sterilization, blood transfusions given without testing and bacteria specific to some regions such as malaria and coli bacillus. It has been observed that medical tourists get sick by catching various bacteria in aesthetic procedures performed under the stairs in cheap medical facilities. These bacteria were recorded in the literature as multidrug-resistant non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), mycobacteria species in the subcategory of NTM, black fungus, NDM 1, Broad Spectrum Beta Lactamase (ESBL) and Staphylococcus aureus. Medical tourists who contract these bacteria after undergoing aesthetic procedures are known to experience symptoms such as lung infections, skin infections, oozing wounds, non-healing wounds, abdominal pain and prolonged fever. Early diagnosis of these risks and symptoms by medical experts is of great importance in the treatment of bacteria.