Kay points out that most of the world's poorest nations are in the tropics. In recent years the number of Taiwanese tourists heading for tropical countries has been steadily increasing. This fact combined with the 300,000 foreign workers in Taiwan means that tropical diseases are increasingly showing up here. Yet there are very few doctors in Taiwan who know how to treat epidemic diseases of the tropics.
「不只對年輕人，對整個社會而言，醫療援外絕對是利人利己，」郭惠二舉例指出，世界貧窮國家多位於熱帶，近年台灣觀光客前往熱帶國家遊覽的人數日增，加上引進三十幾萬名外勞，使得台灣成為熱帶疫病常見地區，但台灣擁有熱帶疾病醫療執照的醫師卻廖廖無幾，因此在台灣感染到熱帶疾病，可能只有死路一條。