Humanitarian Aid Workers

Traveling to extreme environments for humanitarian aid mission is now common. Humanitarian aid workers (HAWs) typically travel for extended periods, work in close proximity to local populations, and work in high-risk environments in low-resource regions. Owing to the nature of their work, HAWs are often unable to avoid high-risk behaviors and frequently encounter stressful conditions, leading to psychologic repercussions. Although morbidity might be high, death during volunteer missions is not common and it is usually not attributable to infectious diseases. Medical evacuations are also not common. One unique aspect of ill-returning HAWs might be their threat to public health in their home countries, as was demonstrated in the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Thus pretravel and posttravel physical and psychologic screening evaluations, in addition to routine health care, are essential for this population.