Homer was incorrect
This article from UAB published in last week's NEJM suggests that it is not the journey but the destination that determines likely travellers' illnesses.
The worldwide collaborative study — based on clinical data collected from more than 17,000 travelers ill enough to see a physician after returning home — formalizes anecdotal theories on trends related to travel disease and also underscores the value of global tracking as bird flu, SARS and other emerging infections loom.
The information, used by study authors to outline trends associating diseases with particular geographic regions, was collected through GeoSentinel, an established network of International Society of Travel Medicine-member clinics.