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- Risks and illnesses
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- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 14 January 2015 11:28
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Dr Eddy Bajrovic*, pictured tackling Mt Kilimanjaro (5895m) which he climbed in 2011.
The recent death of a 64-year-old Australian man in Nepal’s Gokyo Valley from suspected acute altitude sickness has again put the condition in the spotlight for travellers.
Gokyo has been dubbed the ‘Valley of Death’ because it can be climbed quickly – too quickly to allow trekkers to acclimatise adequately to the thinner air.
While it could be tempting to suggest that that age or fitness may have been factors in the man’s sudden death, young, fit travellers are not immune to the potentially fatal effects of altitude sickness. In 2011, a 28-year-old British woman died of altitude sickness while trekking in Gokyo only weeks after completing a marathon back home.
Altitude sickness is becoming more common as travellers visit remote, high-altitude destinations to test their fitness and stamina, to escape the madding crowds, or simply to get a bird’s-eye perspective on the country.
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 07 January 2015 16:32
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Dr Eddy Bajrovic*
The recent death of a three-year-old child in Victoria after drinking ‘raw’ or unpasteurised milk should also serve as a reminder to Aussies travelling overseas to choose milk and other dairy products with care.
While you can get a food-borne illness from many different foods, raw milk is among the most risky – at home or abroad.
But, haven’t people drunk raw milk for centuries, you ask?
That’s true, and when it’s consumed straight after the animal was milked, it is relatively safe. It is in the hours between the milking and when the raw milk is packaged and transported to the point of sale that harmful, potentially fatal, bacteria or other pathogens in it can multiply rapidly.
Raw milk is an ideal medium for a range of bacteria such as Brucella, Campylobacter, Listeria, Mycobacterium bovis (a cause of tuberculosis), Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (E. coli O157), Shigella, Yersinia to grow. Raw milk can also carry parasites like Giardia and viruses such as norovirus.
Any organisms that find their way into raw milk multiply quickly unless killed by heat, which is what happens when raw milk is pasteurised. For instance, E. coli can go from 10 cells – enough to make you sick – to 100 million cells in just over 6 hours at 30°C.
Chilling milk slows bacterial growth, but unlike pasteurisation, doesn’t actually stop it.
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- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 17 December 2014 11:07
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Dr Eddy Bajrovic*
Fewer Australians are contracting malaria overseas: Just 293 were infected already this year (2014), the lowest number by far since the peak of 966 in the year 2000.
Despite that, it’s never been more important to get expert advice if you are visiting a country with the mosquito-borne disease.
Why? Because malaria is very different to Chikungunya, dengue or Zika and some of the other more common (and generally milder) infections travellers can get from mozzies in tropical countries. Malaria can result in severe illness and death – very quickly.
So, every traveller should be clear on whether or not their itinerary is likely to put them at risk of malaria.
But, determining the malaria risk of a particular trip can be the most difficult task a doctor faces in preparing a traveller for an overseas travel.
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 03 December 2014 09:47
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Laurie Sullivan
Travelvax Australia has renewed its advice to Australians holidaying in the Pacific this summer to be on guard against mosquitoes.
The new warning comes as a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert this week predicted that the Chikungunya epidemic sweeping through the region could continue island-hopping for another 2 years, potentially reaching some island nations for the first time.
Outbreaks of Chikungunya are often widespread and protracted.
A year on, the epidemic spreading across the Caribbean and the Americas has now killed at least 155 people and sickened over 900,000 others – with no sign it will ease soon.
In the Pacific, the viral disease has now taken over from two other circulating mosquito-borne viruses – dengue fever and Zika virus – as the region’s principal mosquito-borne health risk.
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- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:25
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
By Laurie Sullivan
The Pacific is in the grip of an ‘unprecedented epidemic wave’ of the mosquito-borne dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika viruses. And, the pattern of disease is likely to continue for years, experts say.
The grim assessment was outlined in a study published by Eurosurveillance, a European scientific journal covering communicable diseases.
The report should serve as a warning to Australians holidaying, working or returning to visit family and friends in the region to take special care to avoid mosquito bites, said Dr Eddy Bajrovic, Medical Director of Travelvax Australia.
He said the diseases pose a risk for all travellers – even cruise ship passengers taking day trips ashore – because the mosquitoes that spread the nasty trio breed and feed around port buildings and in nearby urban areas tourists might visit.
- Details
- Category: Risks and illnesses
- Published: Wednesday, 15 October 2014 11:27
- Written by Administrator Travelvax
Dr Eddy Bajrovic*
A study that claims India actually has an average of 5.75 million cases of dengue fever each year – almost 300 times the official figure – really comes as no surprise to people who work in travel medicine.
US and Indian researchers found that between 2006-2012 the annual number of cases across India averaged almost 6 million instead of the 20,474 reported by the country’s Ministry of Health. Their peer-reviewed study was published recently in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Adding to the human misery, India’s economic burden from dengue amounts to around $1.1 billion a year in direct and indirect costs, including medical treatment, lost wages, and travel to and from clinics and hospitals, the report stated.
But, rubbery figures abound when it comes to dengue and other diseases that impact on travellers.
And, not just in India. Few countries’ figures are accurate, because despite being a ‘notifiable’ disease, there is considerable under-reporting. So, the reported figures are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
