|
Health
By:
Rob Clement
How
can I remain in good health when travelling to exotic places?
Do
not make assumptions. The food will be different. Even if you regularly
eat an Indian curry in the US or UK the taste and the action of the
spices on your stomach may be very different as the mixture of spices
varies from house to house (let alone from restaurant to restaurant).
The spices will be the fresh spices and not the dried ones used in the
UK.
The
beds may be very different. Even in well-known hotels the beds will
need to cater for the local people. In India and China the hotel beds
are a lot harder that in the UK and US.
Do
not take a simple ailment lightly. If you have an upset stomach then
make sure your tour guide knows that you have it. There may be an
infection going around that could need antibiotics to sort it out and
the sooner you get them the better you will be.
Do
drink plenty of bottled water. Even if you are advised it is safe to
drink the tap water you can sometimes have an upset stomach from the
minerals etc in the water that you are not used to. The medical advice
is to drink at least 2 litres a day and that should be increased in a
hot climate. Often it is as well to use some lip-salve on your lips to
prevent them drying out.
Do
use sun block. Your skin will often not react well to the brighter
sunlight and you may go red and blister so slap on the sun-cream,
especially on high mountains or near water. On a personal note I once
got sunstroke on an overcast day as I was at altitude in China in the
snow near a frozen lake and I had left my hat in the vehicle.
DO
TAKE MEDICAL ADVICE. Yes
I am shouting but some of you do not listen. The first time I travelled
to Mumbai (Bombay) in India a number of years ago now, my doctor
advised us to keep our mouths shut in the shower and not to touch our
lips with the flannel. The reason is that the water is so polluted that
to swallow it will mean an illness. On the same trip I visited a family
in Hyderabad and they took all their water for drinking and food
preparation from the local well as the water was too polluted in the
tap. When your doctor advises you to have injections to prevent various
diseases he is doing it with your best interests at heart. He will have
up-to-date information available on the medical problems in various
countries and the advised injections. So please take the advice and
check online (see below for web sites with up-to-date information).
You
will hear a lot of holiday disaster stories a small medical kit of
plasters and sterile wipes are always handy. You will find that for a
lot of countries it is useful to carry a small bottle of hand wash that
does not need water. It will mean that wherever you are you can have
clean hands for that picnic or barbeque.
Do
have a carefree and sickness free holiday. You have worked hard for it
all year and now you can have the benefit.
Web
sites
UK
foreign
office
www.fco.gov.uk
Centres
for Disease Control and
Prevention
www.cdc.gov
U.S.
Department of State’s web
site
www.state.gov
travel.state.gov
If
you find any other useful travel health web sites, please let us know.
|
