Research fees and document requirements before traveling.

Corruption remains a problem among customs and security personnel at some airports. Officials may insist that travelers pay fees or fines for fictitious violations. Some countries have strict requirements for certain documents, including vaccination records, and impose hefty (but legal) fines on travelers who do not have the required documents. If you are familiar with the published duties and fees, you can challenge the request for a fine. Bribes are illegal in every country- always use the term “fine” or “fee” when challenging the request for payment. If officials still insist on an additional fare, comply and pay the fine if the situation isn’t mitigated.

Stay vigilant entering the airport.

In places under constant threat, like Baghdad and Kabul, Afghanistan, security checkpoints begin miles from the terminal and include a myriad of scans, checks, and bomb-sniffing dogs. Following the Brussels airport bombing event, the airport added vehicle screening which occurs about a mile before the airport on the access road. US-based airports currently do not have street-side airport security; travelers can drive up to the terminal and use a convenient curbside bag-check. In this respect, it’s important to be aware of suspicious activity or baggage and report to airport security.

Be flexible.

While the aviation industry has made significant progress towards harmonizing aviation security screening standards across the world, some countries still have different procedures and standards. Travelers should not be alarmed if security procedures differ from those in their home country.

Be aware during bag check.

Have your ID at the ready and know the bag weight limit of the airline you’re flying. If prepared, you’re less likely to feel rushed or lose any belongings. Burglars have been known to hang around airports checking addresses to locate empty homes. It’s a good idea to make sure to hide your luggage tag so that passersby cannot view your home address.

Pack essentials in your carry-on.

To ensure the safekeeping of your electronics, medicine, and any other items that you will need access to during your flight, pack them in your carry-on. Keeping an eye on your carry-on is also important in wait lines. Bring a carry-on or purse that has a zipper to avoid a quick reach-and-grab. It may go without saying, but also never leave luggage unattended- even if someone next to you offers to watch it while you use the restroom.

Prepare for security checkpoints.

Once checked-in and in line for security, a standard rule of thumb is to take out electronics, cameras, and mobile devices and be ready to place them in a separate bin. Some checkpoint requirements are country-specific laws. For example, flights from some countries do not allow people to carry laptops in a carry-on. Other airports instruct the removal of shoes, belts, and anything metal. Know the security requirements of the places you are traveling to and from; you will be able to focus more on what is happening around you.

Move from landside to airside as quickly as possible.

Airside (post-security) areas of airports are less exposed to terrorism and crime than the landside, so travelers should try to get through from the landside to the airside as quickly as possible. Max Leitschuh, Sr. Intelligence Transportation Manager, says that passengers can take several steps to reduce their exposure to the possible threat of terrorist attacks in landside areas of airports. These include:

• Only bring carry-on luggage if possible
• Check in online before arriving at the airport
• Print boarding passes at home or send to a mobile device
• Proceed directly to security checkpoints after arriving at the airport instead of loitering in the landside areas
• Sign up for trusted traveler programs that are available (such as TSA Pre Check)

Passengers can sometimes use security checkpoints at terminals or concourses different from the scheduled flight concourse if they connect to the airside portion of the airport and the lines are shorter.

Be cognizant when you reach your destination.

Long flights, time differences, and travel itself can leave travelers tired. Be sure to take necessary steps to re-energize prior to arriving at your destination. This will allow you to stay alert as you transition from the airplane to the airport. Use peripheral vision to stay aware of your surroundings as you migrate through the airport. Make sure you only use official taxis or transportation that has been booked ahead of time. If staying at a hotel, pre-arrange an airport transfer using the hotel transportation service.

It’s important that travelers purchase insurance before embarking on a trip. Travel insurance covers emergency help if needed.

Severe Thunderstorm Classification
Thunderstorms are classified as “severe” when they produce one or more of the following:

• Wind gusts of 93 kph (58 mph) or greater
• Hailstones with a diameter of at least 2.5 cm (1 inch)
• A tornado

Severe thunderstorms are volatile weather systems that can result in serious damage to business and residential infrastructure. Depending on the strength and weather conditions a thunderstorm produces, prolonged disruptions to transportation and utility networks and business operations are possible. Frequent lightning, strong straight-line winds, flooding downpours, and hail are common during the passage of a severe thunderstorm.

Depending on atmospheric conditions, severe storms could also spawn destructive tornadoes. A tornado typically consists of a funnel-shaped cloud that reaches the ground. Winds associated with a tornado can exceed 322 kph (200 mph). Damage paths can be greater than 1.6 km (one mile) wide and 80 km (50 miles) long.

Business Continuity for Severe Thunderstorms
It is important to know how to effectively prepare for a severe weather event in order to protect life and property and ensure business resiliency following the passage of a storm. This includes conducting a severe thunderstorm hazard assessment ahead of time, categorizing all business assets, developing a severe thunderstorm risk assessment, and practicing site-specific emergency management plans.

Severe Thunderstorm Hazard Assessment
Understand the potential impacts on business operations by conducting a severe thunderstorm hazard assessment ahead of the storm. To do so, list what types of damage may be possible during the passage of a thunderstorm, ensuring all aspects of a storm are considered (hail, flooding, damaging winds, lightning, etc.). Assess the possibility of prolonged disruptions that might continue in the days following a severe thunderstorm (protracted power outages, supply chain disruptions, etc.).

Categorize all business assets that could potentially be exposed to severe thunderstorm activity and assess their degree of vulnerability. Note that thunderstorms (especially those that produce tornadoes) may cause direct losses to physical assets, indirect losses to business function (e.g., loss of production during recovery efforts), and intangible market losses (e.g., missed opportunity to sell to new buyers).

Severe Thunderstorm Risk Assessment
Develop a comprehensive severe thunderstorm risk assessment for your company that speaks to the vulnerability of exposed assets and outlines what are considered tolerable or unacceptable risks.

Use this information to perform a cost-benefit analysis to determine what mitigation measures would be best suited for your company, as well as what options are available to you to ensure business continuity during and after the passage of a storm. The two following tactics can support your risk assessment:

• Create inventories of products, equipment, and vehicles that might need to be moved to a safe location before a severe weather outbreak occurs.
• Ensure that critical datasets are backed up at a secure, offsite facility or through cloud storage.

Emergency Management Planning
Research, create, and practice site-specific emergency management plans to enact during the passage of a severe thunderstorm:

• Reference regional authorities’ local disaster management plans.
• Create a list of emergency contacts (emergency services, essential staff, and suppliers).
• Practice evacuation plans and safe-sheltering protocols to ensure employees are ready to act on short notice.

Always verify the details of your insurance coverage for hazards associated with severe thunderstorms. While your scheme may cover wind damage sustained during a passing thunderstorm, supplementary protection policies may be required for other threats such as flood and hail damage.

For more information on coping with thunderstorms, read our advice sheet on How to Prepare for Thunderstorms.

Click here to see the Enhanced Fujita Scale for tornadoes according to wind speed and damage created.

Vaccines
Last-minute travel can affect which vaccinations a traveler is given prior to departure. Immunity generally takes two weeks to develop after vaccination, so individuals leaving during that window may not be completely protected from disease. Many travelers will have received standard routine vaccinations such as measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, polio vaccine, varicella vaccine, tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis vaccine, and seasonal influenza. However, if travelers are not completely up to date, the first or additional doses of these vaccines can be administered.

Certain vaccines that are given in multi-dose series can be protective after a single dose, which can be administered to last-minute travelers. Travelers can then complete the recommended series for these vaccinations upon return. Furthermore, some vaccines can be administered on an accelerated schedule and some series can be started before travel and completed after travel. Extended stay travelers or expatriates should receive guidance on clinics at the destination where their vaccination series can be completed. Bear in mind, however, that some vaccines do not have an accepted accelerated vaccination schedule.

The yellow fever vaccine is required by many countries in certain situations and must be administered at least 10 days before arrival at the destination country. Travelers may have to rearrange travel to accommodate this time frame or risk difficulty entering their destination. Further, travelers to the Hajj must obtain a visa that requires proof of meningococcal vaccine at least 10 days prior and less than three years before arriving in Saudi Arabia.

Food and Water Safety
Under the umbrella of basic health precautions, food and water safety are critically important. To avoid the risk of general foodborne illness, travelers should follow routine food hygiene practices. Ensure that food is properly handled and prepared. Wash raw produce before eating. Despite the cultural allure of many local cuisines, consider avoiding raw meat dishes, undercooked or raw fish and shellfish, and unpasteurized dairy products, which frequently harbor bacterial and parasitic pathogens. These precautions become even more important in areas where tap water is generally unsafe for consumption. Additionally, even in areas where water is potable, consider drinking bottled or purified water whenever possible, because travelers often develop diarrhea when exposed to the unfamiliar microorganisms in water from a new location.

Insect Precautions
The most common protection against vector-borne diseases is the use of insect repellents, most of which include DEET. Repellent should be applied to the neck, wrists, and ankles, while avoiding contact with the eyes, nose, and mouth. When applied to the skin, these repellents can last from 15 minutes to 10 hours, depending on the climate, the formulation of repellent used, and the effect of the specific repellent on specific vector species. Effects can be longer-lasting when applied to or impregnated into clothing.

Individuals should consider wearing long sleeved, light-colored shirts and pants to protect against mosquitoes, sandflies, and ticks. In tick-infested areas, pant legs should further be tucked into socks and heavy boots when walking through rural or forested areas. Additionally, clothing, bags, and other belongings should be examined thoroughly for ticks before entering the home, and individuals should bathe and conduct a full-body tick check within two hours of returning home, if possible.

Finally, individuals should avoid places and times when vectors are most active. For example, people can stay indoors during peak biting hours, such as dusk-to-dawn for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Individuals can avoid walking in wooded areas with tall grass or underbrush where ticks are found and avoid contact with fresh water where schistosomiasis occurs. If such freshwater contact cannot be avoided, authorities recommend that individuals wear protective boots. Because several vector-borne diseases can be transmitted by contact with blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids, individuals in affected areas should practice personal precautions and consider the safety of local blood supplies. Furthermore, in areas where Chagas disease or tick-borne encephalitis are endemic, individuals should avoid potentially contaminated food items.

Travel Health Kit
A medical first aid kit will help with minor injuries and give you a supply of common medications that may be difficult to acquire during travel. Medical kits should be easily accessible. If taking air travel, keep your first aid kit in your carry-on luggage; however, you may need to store sharp components in checked luggage due to security measures. Customize your kit to fit your travel (for example, trekking will pose different needs than visiting a city). Be sure to include supplies such as medications taken on a regular basis, over-the-counter pain relievers, antacids, bandages, antiseptic, cotton swabs, tweezers, scissors, disposable gloves, extra pair of eyeglasses or contacts, saline, sunglasses, thermometer, first aid quick reference card, and addresses and phone numbers of area hospitals or clinics. Additional supplies may be needed for outdoor/adventure travel, traveling with children, or other special cases.

Conclusions
Travelers – particularly those on urgent business – may not have the recommended four to six weeks prior to departure to consult with a travel medicine provider for the best preventative measures. Even with only a short window before leaving, travelers should seek advice from a travel medicine specialist. Travel medicine providers can brief the traveler about risks in the country and possible medications, vaccinations, and other precautions to take while abroad. Prior to departure, expatriates or those on extended-stay should consult medical providers for advice about equivalent medical care. Additionally, basic health precautions, insect precautions, food and water safety, and carrying a travel kit can help protect any traveler from health risks and are even more important for last-minute travelers.

Vaccinations and Herd Immunity
While vaccinations are important to protect individual human capital, they are critical for broader, continued corporate productivity. Vaccinations have a direct effect on individuals by providing them with a defense, or immunity, against disease. Yet, vaccinations also have an indirect protective effect on other individuals in the corporate setting. For example, when a high proportion of employees are vaccinated, they potentially prevent the spread of disease within the workplace by establishing a protective barrier around those who are not vaccinated and/or have not built up sufficient defenses against disease. In the science community, we call this concept herd immunity.

The modern corporate workplace is threatened by local and international infectious diseases. Local disease outbreaks have the potential to expose a high proportion of employees to an infectious disease; therefore, herd immunity is extremely important for maintaining a corporate protective barrier against outbreaks. Corporate health is equally jeopardized by international disease threats when unprotected individual employees travel abroad. Upon return, those employees can threaten productivity by exposing others to the imported infectious agent.

International Travelers & Recommended Vaccinations
International travelers regardless of their destination should ensure that they are up to date on the vaccines listed below. It is important to note that healthcare providers will likely add additional vaccinations to those listed below, such as yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis, if these vaccines are required by the traveler’s host country and/or if the disease is endemic in the destination country. Furthermore, employers should encourage all international travelers to contact a physician who has expertise in travel medicine four to six weeks prior to travel. This will allow enough time for the traveler to complete any vaccine series as well as give their body time to build up immunity.

• Chickenpox (Varicella): Recommended for travelers without a history of chickenpox or evidence of immunity to chickenpox by blood test. This vaccine is administered as a two-dose series.
• Hepatitis A: This vaccine is included in routine children’s immunizations. The Hepatitis A vaccination is most important for travelers who are traveling to countries with an intermediate to high prevalence of Hepatitis A. This vaccine is administered as a two-dose series. A Hepatitis A/Hepatitis B combined vaccine is also available.
• Hepatitis B: Recommended for all unvaccinated persons who might be exposed to blood or body fluids, have sexual contact with the local population, or be exposed through medical treatment, such as for an accident, even in developed countries, and for all adults requesting protection from HBV infection. The Hepatitis B vaccination is most important for travelers who are traveling to countries with an intermediate-to-high prevalence of Hepatitis B. This vaccine is administered as a three-dose series. A Hepatitis A/ Hepatitis B combined vaccine is also available.
• Influenza: Recommended for all travelers over the age 50, very young children, and/or travelers of all ages who have a chronic disease such as diabetes or emphysema. This vaccination is administered annually.
• Measles, mumps, rubella (MMR): Recommended for travelers born after 1957, and those who did not have these diseases as children. People born before 1957 generally acquired immunity to these diseases in childhood. This vaccine is administered as a two-dose series.
• Pertussis (Whooping Cough): This vaccine is included in routine children’s immunizations with tetanus and diphtheria (see below). It is also now available for adults in combination with the tetanus/ diphtheria booster.
• Pneumococcal pneumonia: Recommended for all adults over age 65, and anyone with chronic disease. Physicians in the US also recommend this vaccination for smokers and anyone with asthma.
• Tetanus and diphtheria: A booster is recommended every 10 years after initial immunization series.

Infectious diseases have the potential to greatly impact business productivity by eroding and diminishing human capital on an individual and corporate level. Since infectious diseases are a constant threat to the bottom line of every business, it is imperative that businesses monitor local and international disease threats, and adopt proactive healthcare measures. For that reason, thoughtful proactive disease prevention protocols are key to eliminating threats posed by local and international infectious diseases.

To learn more about how health inelligence can help protect your corporate workplace and global travelers from disease threats, download a copy of our white paper, The Value of Health Intelligence.

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