Learn about travel health risks

People today have gone into a habit of holidaying into different places all over the world. With the increasing travelling of people to different parts of the world, a new addition has been observed in terms of people's health. Although travelling has become more convenient and easier in this modern era, the health risks related to travelling are also becoming conveniently severe. Many people have been observed to fall sick or contract severe health conditions such as malaria or traveller's diarrhoea. These health conditions are the two most common conditions that can be associated with travelling. Of these two conditions, traveller's diarrhoea is more common and is known to affect approximately 20% to 30% of the people travelling around.

What is malaria?

Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite known as plasmodium, which is a single cell organism, found to be living in the anopheles species of the mosquitoes. This parasite is carried by the female anopheles mosquito and is likely to contract the disease on getting bitten by the mosquito. Once you have acquired the parasite through a bite, it travels through your bloodstream towards the liver. On the way to your liver, this parasite invades your red blood cells, causing them to burst and infect your system. When the red blood cells burst and infect your system, it causes high fever and in some cases is also known to cause death of a person.

Four different types of malaria parasite are known to affect humans, which include plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium ovale, plasmodium malariae and plasmodium vivax. Of these four types of malaria parasite, the falciparum one is the most dangerous one. The other three parasites are comparatively less dangerous and cause less discomfort in you. In the initial stage, the symptoms of malaria are quite similar to that of flu. Because of this many a times it becomes difficult to diagnose whether a person is suffering from malaria or not. Some of the common symptoms of malaria include fever, chills, shakes, headaches, muscle ache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. If you are suffering from falciparum, you are likely to suffer experience symptoms such as kidney failure, seizures, mental confusion and coma.

What is travellers' diarrhoea?

Travellers' diarrhoea is quite common among people and tends to affect people who have travelled in areas such as Asia, Middle East, Africa, Mexico or Central and South America. It usually affects people mostly during the first two weeks of their stay in these areas or countries. This disease does not result into long lasting effects and people usually recover within a time span of about three to five days. It can cause dehydration and loss of valuable minerals and salts, which are also known as electrolytes. The risk of diarrhoea is higher based on what part of the world you are. It mostly depends on the level of sanitary and other hygiene standards, whether they are high or not. You are at a higher risk of contracting this bacterium if you are travelling to a warmer region and are never exposed to the bacterium before.