Travel Tip: Travel Health Information for Good Health Before,During and After Your Trip
The diseases most commonly seen in travellers are diarrhoea, malaria (if you travel in a malaria-infested area), accidents (when travelling by car or swimming), wound infections and sexually transmitted diseases.
– Diarrhoea is caused by contaminated food and drinking-water. You must therefore be careful if your are travelling in poor hygiene conditions.
– Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, so the first thing to do is to protect yourself against these mosquitoes.
– In order to prevent accidents during travelling, it is wise to apply the same precautions as those taken at home.
In addition, it is very important that all wounds should be thoroughly disinfected in order to avoid infection.
TRAVELLER’S DIARRHOEA
Many intestinal infections are attributable to infections picked up by mouth or hands. With a little care most of these illnesses can be prevented. Hepatitis A, typhoid fever, polio and cholera still occur in countries with poor hygiene, but these diseases are easily prevented.
However, the chance is rather large that you will still contract a light and/or nondangerous form of traveller’s diarrhoea. Traveller’s diarrhoea almost always spontaneously clears up after a few days, but can nevertheless be irritating. And a risk to your overall and travel health.
In the first place measures must be taken against dehydration. Likewise, treatment of the symptoms must be considered in order to reduce the number of bowel movements and relieve other symptoms such as fever, vomiting and stomach cramps. Sometimes a more serious form of diarrhoea occurs, for which specific treatment with antibiotics is indicated or where hospitalisation or fluid replacement appears unavoidable.
It takes only a few basic preventive measures to make your trip a success : Total prevention of traveller’s diarrhoea is impossible and it is obvious that preventive measures can seldom be strictly followed at all times. But following preventive measures do significantly reduce the risk of contracting serious diarrhoea: In order to maintain good travel health wash your hands before eating and avoid (if possible) :
– raw vegetables and fruits that you have not peeled yourself
– uncooked or unpasteurized dairy products
– insufficiently cooked sea foods (+ Hepatitis A !) and meat
– “local meals” which do not smell fresh
Filed under: Travel Guides