TravelHealth.co.uk is a nurse-led, easy to use TravelHealth Guide on the Internet.  For most people TravelHealth involves finding out which vaccinations are needed for a long awaited trip overseas.  But did you know that only 5% of travel related illness is currently preventable by vaccination?  Most travel related problems could be prevented by paying attention to common sense advice. 

When we travel we often think we are invincible – we certainly won’t end up catching HIV from a prostitute, we definitely won’t end up with Hepatitis because we had some wonderful tattoo carved across our arm, we never dream we could get skin cancer just because we got burnt on the beach on that one sunny day, and how could we ever imagine getting involved in a serious road accident – and yet …

• In 1994 all cases of heterosexual HIV were acquired abroad, with women 2-4 times more likely to catch HIV from unprotected sex than men.

• Hepatitis B is 100 times easier to catch than HIV and is often transmitted from dirty needles used for tattoos or drugs; it is easily contracted through infected blood.

• We all know excessive sun damage makes the skin age prematurely.  While we get told how well we look when we come back for our holiday with a golden tan, we need to realise the damage it does to our bodies. 

• Road accidents don’t just kill – they maim and disable, and are the major cause of trauma and fatalities in teenagers.  Unfamiliar surroundings, inadequate safety on the road and a lack of maintenance, all lead to a growing problem.

As if this wasn’t enough to think about! 

There are some areas of the world where diseases such as malaria and dengue fever are passed on by the kiss of a mosquito; and an innocent holiday can leave us with Typhoid (characterised by a type of “pea soup” diarrhoea!); or Hepatitis A, spread from infected animal pooh on our unwashed food; and a host of other delightful dishes. 

Well, the good news is that if we are adequately prepared and visit our health professional at the earliest possible time, we can get vaccinated to protect us – however not all disease is vaccine preventable and common sense is all that exists between us and a pain in the belly with frequent trips to the long drop!

Life is all about risk and benefit, and travel most certainly broadens the mind.  But we must think carefully about the issues involved, of vaccinations, malaria, dangerous animals, accidents, sexual disease, keeping safe and most of, all keeping healthy – you see if we have our vaccinations, take our malaria tablets as we are advised, follow sensible advice with our eating and drinking, and lead a balanced lifestyle, then that is the most we can do to make sure that accidents, disease or even stress don’t ruin what could be the turning point of our life!