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Travel Health: Useful Medical Information For Good Health Be

The diseases most ordinarily seen in travellers are diarrhoea, malaria (if you travel during a malaria-infested area), accidents (when travelling by automobile or swimming), wound infections and sexually transmitted diseases.

– Diarrhoea is caused by contaminated food and drinking-water. you want to therefore take care if your are travelling in poor hygiene conditions.

– so as to stop accidents during travelling, it’s knowing apply an equivalent precautions as those taken reception . additionally , it’s extremely important that each one wounds should be thoroughly disinfected so as to avoid infection.

– Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, therefore the very first thing to try to to is to guard yourself against these mosquitoes.

ravel Health: Useful Medical Information For Good Health
ravel Health: Useful Medical Information For Good Health

¡¤ TRAVELLER’S DIARRHOEA

Many intestinal infections are due to infections picked up orally or hands. With a touch care most of those illnesses are often prevented. hepatitis A , typhoid , polio and cholera still occur in countries with poor hygiene, but these diseases are easily prevented.

However, the prospect is large that you simply will still contract a light-weight and/or nondangerous sort of traveller’s diarrhoea. Traveller’s diarrhoea always spontaneously clears up after a couple of 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 so as to scale back the amount of bowel movements and relieve other symptoms like fever, vomiting and stomach cramps. Sometimes a more serious sort of diarrhoea occurs, that specific treatment with antibiotics is indicated or where hospitalisation or fluid replacement appears unavoidable.

– raw vegetables and fruits that you’ve got not peeled yourself
– uncooked or unpasteurized dairy products
– insufficiently cooked sea foods (+ hepatitis A !) and meat
– “local meals” which don’t smell fresh
– ice-cream bought from street merchants (industrial ice straight from the deep-freeze is perhaps safe).

It takes only a couple of basic preventive measures to form your trip a hit : Total prevention of traveller’s diarrhoea is impossible and it’s obvious that preventive measures can never be strictly followed in the least times. But following preventive measures do significantly reduce the danger of contracting serious diarrhoea: so as to take care of nice travel health wash your hands before eating and avoid (if possible):

it’s very important to disinfect drinking-water on adventure trips. Total sterilisation of beverage is impossible. the subsequent measures considerably reduce the contamination risk and safeguard your travel health:

Cooked meals should be served hot. The place where you eat is additionally important. A meal taken from a stall presents a greater risk than a meal taken during a restaurant. Avoid restaurants where there is a lot of insects.
Avoid water and ice-cubes. drinking water and soft drinks are safe. be careful for bottle caps that have already been used.

– Boiling the water is extremely effective.
– a pleasant alternative is chemical disinfection with chlorine drops (e.g. Hadex?, Drinkwell chloor?; available in sport shops specialized in outdoor activities) or chlorine tablets (Certisil Combina?; chloramine tablets; available at the pharmacy). Their effect are often improved by first filtering unclear water. Silver salts (Micropur?, Certisil Argento?) aren’t very suitable to disinfect water, but they keep disinfected water germ-free for an extended time.

For adventurous travellers conscious to travel health it is best to shop for a transportable water-filter. the utilization of antibiotics so as to stop diarrhoea before it occurs are often dangerous + Also the utilization of other preventive medications isn’t recommended.

. the way to treat diarrhoea?

it’s very important to consume sufficient liquid and salt so as to stop dehydration. you’ll do that by taking salt solutions, but tea with lemon, broth, soft drinks and fruit crush , supplemented with salt crackers are tastier. Commercial salt products are available on the market (ORS-solution).

Antibiotics are indicated :

Taking an anti-diarrhoea preparation (loperamide, e.g. Imodium?) can greatly reduce the amount of bowel movements, with a substantial reduction of the complaints as a result. Imodium? may only be employed by adults and older children and just for treating ordinary watery diarrhoea: 1 capsule after every loose movement up to a maximum of 4 per day.

1. If blood, mucus or pus are present within the stools.
2. If after 24 to 48 hours, there’s no sign of improvement and therefore the diarrhoea is amid fever (above 38.5 C) or severe abdominal cramps, or if there’s over six stools per 24 hours and when these also occur in the dark .
3. Or if due to travel circumstances a quicker solution is completely desirable . Appropriate antibiotics are only to be used on doctor’s prescription

¡¤ SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES

Casual sexual contacts tend to be higher while on holiday abroad. Sexually transmitted diseases, particularly AIDS, form therefore a crucial risk for travellers. often unintentional and unsafe sexual contact takes place under alcohol influence. Prevention while on holiday abroad is not any different from the precautions you’re taking reception . Adequate use of a condom, preferably bought reception , is completely essential. Only a water-soluble lubricant should be used, but it only offers a partial guarantee (e.g. KY gel). Vaccination against hepatitis B is suggested . Always consult your doctor if you reckon you’re in danger , even when there is no symptoms.

¡¤ MALARIA (swamp fever, malaria)

The symptoms include attacks of fever, but can initially be almost like influenza. If adequate treatment isn’t started in time, an attack may sometimes end in death within a couple of days.

Malaria is an communicable disease caused by a parasite (called Plasmodium) transmitted by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. there’s two differing types of which Malaria falciparum is that the most dangerous and therefore the most widespread. The time period – the time between an infecting bite and therefore the appearance of the disease – varies from ten days to 2 weeks (rarely several months).

Malaria only occurs in those areas during which Anopheles mosquitoes are present : within the tropics and during a sizable amount of subtropical areas. From a height of 1.500 to 2.500 m onwards, counting on temperature and climate, Anopheles mosquitoes are either rare or non-existent.

. Where does malaria occur?

Risk also exists within the suburbs of the large cities in Asia (e.g. in India). during a few of areas the danger varies consistent with the season.

In most big cities there’s little or no risk in the least of infection, except in Africa where a true risk exists.

. How can malaria be prevented?

it’s very important for travel health to avoid mosquito bites : the Anopheles mosquito only bites between dusk and dawn, is small and not very makes any noise.

Non containing DEET repellents were less examined; Autan-Active. and Mosegor. are however excellent safe products.

– within the evening wear light-coloured clothing which covers your arms and legs the maximum amount as possible. Apply repellent cream with a DEET basis (20 to 50%, for youngsters and pregnant women preferably 20 to 30%) to the uncovered parts of your body. Repeat this every two to 6 hours (it won’t protect you all night).

If these measures are administered correctly, the danger of malaria are going to be reduced by 80 to 90% and travel health is maintained

– Sleep in rooms that leave no access to mosquitoes, (mosquito nets on the sills, electrically-warmed anti-mosquito plates, air-conditioning) or sleep under a screen impregnated with permethrine or deltamethrine hung over the bed with the sides tucked under the mattress.

. The intake of pills as prevention

there is no drug efficient to stop malaria 100%, which suggests that often a mixture of measures is preferable. Also the drugs used have changed over the years. Moreover, the benefits and drawbacks of medicine should be considered against the danger of malaria infection. These risks are hooked in to the visited country, and on the region, the season, the duration of your stay and therefore the quite trip.

Therefore it is the doctor who can best decide for every individual which drug to use. This explains why individuals from an equivalent group may find yourself taking different drugs.

Some people could be troubled by the side effects while taking antimalarial drugs. These are usually mild and aren’t always a reason to prevent taking the pills. Sometimes it’s going to be necessary to change to a different sort of medication thanks to intestinal problems, allergies or other intolerance symptoms.

Finally, as no drug is 100% effective in preventing malaria, it is vital that if an attack of fever occurs within the first three months after your return from the tropics, a malaria infection should be considered as an opportunity despite the right use of the drug prescribed.

However, it’s reassuring to understand that malaria, provided it’s recognised in time, is straightforward to treat with none danger of recurrent attacks. the assumption that “once malaria always malaria” is untrue.

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