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Latest News
- Risks and illnesses
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 25 March 2015 10:37
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Laurie Sullivan
Travellers heading abroad through Sydney Airport are getting a double whammy of messages – one as they leave, the other when they return – warning them of the increased risk of picking up a sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or blood-borne viruses (BBVs) during overseas travel.
The warnings follow news that 1-in-5 of NSW’s new HIV infections is acquired overseas. Around half of the 26,800 Australians living with HIV in Australia reside in NSW.
NSW Health data revealed that of the 354 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2013, 21% were likely to have been infected overseas, 64% within Australia and 15% unknown.
The high proportion of heterosexual and older people among the infected returning travellers has health experts concerned. Heterosexual contact accounted for 17% of the soaring number of HIV cases – more than half of them acquired abroad.
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 04 March 2015 10:56
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Dr Eddy Bajrovic*
Mixed berries imported into Australia from China and Chile have been responsible for 21 cases of Hepatitis A in 6 states and territories in the past month.
The berries may have been contaminated in a variety of ways, including being handled by an infected person or coming into contact with contaminated water after being picked.
When eaten raw, fresh fruit and vegetables – especially those with uneven shapes or rough surfaces – are a source of water- or food-borne diseases like Hepatitis A and E, as well as the many pathogens that cause traveller’s diarrhoea. Crevices or hair-like projections on their outer surface can stop contaminated moisture from being rinsed off during post-harvest processing in factories or kitchens.
Since the introduction of sewerage systems in the 1950s, outbreaks of Hepatitis A in Australia have become rare. Most cases are linked to overseas travel.
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 18 February 2015 11:11
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Dr Eddy Bajrovic*
A Victorian man who holidayed in Bali recently has been hospitalised with the potentially fatal mosquito-borne virus, Japanese encephalitis (JE).
On the face of it, the 45-year-old wasn’t at any particular risk of this most Asian of diseases.
He had a typical short stay: a week in a villa in Canggu, which is just 15 minutes north from the holiday hotspot of Seminyak, in Bali’s southwest.
We’re told he didn’t spend any time in rice-growing areas, where most JE outbreaks occur. (Wading birds in rice fields and pigs serve as reservoirs, or ‘amplifying hosts’, in the virus’ transmission cycle. Mosquitoes transfer it between the two animal species before passing it on to humans, who are termed ‘dead-end hosts’ because the virus doesn’t pass from one human to another via mozzie bites.)
Indeed, the Victorian hardly left his villa, according to the state’s senior medical advisor, Dr Finn Romanes, whose case report was published on ProMED
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 11 February 2015 10:48
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Dr Eddy Bajrovic*
“Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth…”
So goes the famous marketing slogan. Well, not lately.
The famous theme park is ground zero for a growing outbreak of measles that began in December and as of last Friday had racked up 114 cases in 7 US states and 1 in Mexico. The outbreak likely started from a traveller who became infected overseas with measles, then visited the amusement park while infectious, according to the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC).
President Obama has weighed in on a raging public debate, urging unprotected Americans to get vaccinated as the national total passed 121 in 18 states this year.
The fact that Disneyland is at the centre of a measles outbreak isn’t surprising. Attracting thousands of visitors of all ages every day, it’s the perfect setting for this highly contagious virus to spread before jetting home across the globe with them.
But, unless they are lining up to meet Mickey or Goofy, why should Australians travelling overseas be concerned about measles?
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 04 February 2015 10:47
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
Travellers used to have just two concerns if they encountered Asia’s ubiquitous macaque monkeys.
The first was having the light-fingered mammals pinch food or some other irresistible item from their hand, pocket or bag.
The second was angering one (usually by running out of food!) and getting bitten. Besides being painful, a bite from a monkey could potentially pass on a serious infection, such as the herpes B virus or the deadly rabies virus.
However, it’s what’s biting the macaques that is also raising concern.
If a female Anopheles mosquito takes a blood meal from a macaque and later bites a person there’s a growing risk it could pass on the parasite Plasmodium knowlesi, that causes the fifth and most recently identified form of malaria in humans. (The others include the most dangerous, P. falciparum, as well as P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae.)
P. knowlesi is known as ‘monkey malaria’ because, until relatively recently, it was thought to circulate only among the macaque monkeys.
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 28 January 2015 10:54
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Dr Eddy Bajrovic*
On a scorching hot day, there’s nothing more refreshing than to dive into cool water.
But, would you think twice about taking a refreshing dip if you knew that the river or lake contained crocodiles or sharks? Of course you would!
What about thousands of tiny parasites that could cause the widespread and potentially fatal tropical disease, schistosomiasis?
You might be surprised to learn that you probably would still dive in, if the findings of a new European study are a guide.
The study involved a survey of a group of travellers who visited Lily Waterfalls, a popular tourist destination on the east African island of Madagascar.
Of the 37 who ventured into the water, 28 (78%) became infected. Of the 18 (45%) of these who were warned about the risk of infection by their doctor or others, 16 (89%) still took a plunge.
