In a recent survey of 334 UK travellers 25% of them failed get any health info or get vaccinated against disease prior to departure. The Survey by Taylor Nelson Sofres looked at people flying to Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The results also showed that people are more likely to cover themselves for their baggage rather than their health. Only one in ten failed to take out baggage insurance prior to departure.
Today it is easier than ever to fly to exotic locations at short notice but arranging vaccinations takes time and effort. Flying to remote tropical areas involves high health risks so people should make the efforts to find out more information to protect their health.
Companies also need to be aware of the dangers of sending their employees to remote areas at short notice. Potential frequent fliers need to be protected in advance so that they can depart at short notice.
As well as the more obvious dangers, such as Malaria and other diseases, people need to get educated in general. For example, diarrhoea is caught by four out of five travellers but this can be turned around by basic preventative measures. Moreover, whilst diarrhoea may appear relatively harmless you can quickly get dehydrated.
Global travel and health has recently come under the spotlight with the appearance of the H1N1 virus. The problem these days is that the incubation period for many diseases is longer than the time it takes to fly to your destination. This means that viruses can spread undetected very quickly.
According to Dr Chris Worth, medical director at Novartis Vaccines in the UK, “What the H1N1 virus has done is to clearly demonstrate how global travel can help diseases spread.” It was only five weeks between the first cases of swine flu to the announcement of a global pandemic.