Antibiotics for Travelers: What's Good and What's Not.

International travel to exotic destinations continues to increase, as does the risk for illness during travel. Health problems during travel are common. Although many medical problems that travelers incur are noninfectious in origin (eg, injuries, environment-associated illness), travelers often are at risk for acquiring a variety of infections. Many travel-related infections also occur commonly in the developed world, whereas other infections of travelers may be geographically restricted to specific world regions and/or are infrequently encountered in developed nations. Antibiotics play an important role in the treatment and prevention of a variety of bacterial and parasitic infections in travelers. This article reviews antibiotics of particularly high utility to travelers, with emphasis on selected agents that, with appropriate advice from a travel medicine specialist, can be used safely for prophylaxis and self-treatment during travel. The role of antibiotics in selected high-risk travelers also is discussed.