Background.Older individuals represent a substantial proportion of international travelers. Because of physiological changes and
the increased probability of underlyingmedical conditions, older travelers might be at higher risk for at least some travel-associated
diseases.
Methods.With the aimof describing the epidemiology of travel-associated diseases in older adults, medical datawere prospectively
collected on ill international travelers presenting to GeoSentinel sites from 1997 to 2009. Seven thousand thirty-four patients
aged 60 years and over were identified as older travelers and were compared to 56,042 patients aged 18–45 years, who were used
as the young adult reference population.