Traveler to Malawi and Ethiopia blogs about travel vaccines and Passport Health
Once in a while our customers are so fascinated with our service that they decide to write about their experiences with Passport Health on their blog. This was her first time going to a travel health clinic. She found it to be a very pleasant and convenient experience.
Click Here to see what immunizations she received, declined and to read the rest of the story on her blog.
Measles Awareness Report
In 2007, when Japanese tourists were restricted from the flight home from Canada due to 1-2 members of the group contracting the measles disease, every person in the 42-person group who did not have a record of being vaccinated for measles had to be quarantined for 3-5 days before being allowed to complete their trip back to Japan. In 2004, 25% of students contracted measles while on a trip to
Due to low vaccine coverage in areas with high reports of the disease and the increase of tourism travel to these areas, eradication programs continue to be complicated and face resistence. Many people aren’t fully aware of the disease itself, much less the need for vaccination against it. Even in the
Measles is a highly contagious infectious diseas, with potentially fatal complication, and still stands as a cause of public health concern in developing countries (ISTM, Journal of Travel Medicine, Volume 15, Issue 2, 2008, pp124-125). It is recommended that anyone born after 1957 get properly vaccinated with a primary series as a pediatric and one booster as an adult. Passport Health offers the MMR (Mumps, Measles, Rubella) vaccine in all of our locations, please call us at: 1-888-499-PASS (7277) if you have further questions or concerns.
Top 10 Health Tips for International Travel
Michelle Reesman, RN, Executive Director of Passport Health Colorado says far too many international travelers, from business travelers to the more adventurous types, leave home without taking the basic steps she suggests below. “People need to put the same kind of preparation into their health as they do into their destination choice, passport acquisition or flight plans,” Reesman advises.
- Get advice from a travel health professional. Four to six weeks before departure, consult a Travel Medicine Specialist for the most up-to-date immunization, malaria recommendations and consultation. They can answer your questions and prepare you for a safe and healthy trip. It’s important to get your immunizations early, as some of the medication take time to effectively immunize you.
- Protect yourself from disease-bearing insects. Wear protective clothing and use products containing 20-30% DEET, the insect repellent permethrin and bed nets.
- Never go barefoot, even on the beach.
- Make sure your water is purified. Do not use tap water when brushing your teeth.
- Consume only well-cooked food. Fruits and veggies? Peel it, boil it or forget it!
- Pre-fill your prescriptions, they may not be available at your destination. Take extra in case your trip is extended. In some countries counterfeit medications can be a problem. Carry medications in their original packaging and pack in your carry-on luggage.
- Don’t swim in rivers, lakes, ponds or streams. Well-chlorinated pools and salt water are usually considered safe.
- Take a basic first aid kit. Include medications for pain relief, such as ibuprofen and Tylenol, topical preparations for minor skin wounds and infections, and medications for allergic reactions (Benadryl). Consider presumptive treatment (Imodium and an antibiotic) for traveler’s diarrhea. Discuss the appropriate antibiotics for your destination with a Travel Medicine Specialist.
- Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of medical problems among tourists. Avoid riding motorcycles, or wear a helmet, and don’t drink and drive. Wear a seat-belt and only travel during daylight hours.
- Purchase travel insurance that includes emergency medical evacuation. Most medical insurance plans aren’t accepted when you travel internationally. One travel insurance company we recommend, called Seven Corners (formerly known as Liaison International) It can also be accessed from our website, just scroll to the bottom and the link will be on the right-hand side.
At Passport Health, our Travel Medicine Specialist assess your individual needs, prescribe and administer immunizations and medication, and discuss any precautionary measures for dietary and recreational activities. You will also receive the latest information of health risks and requirements for each destination on your travel itinerary. We use a variety of resources including the Center for Disease Controls (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Department of State so that we can stay abreast of the latest developments in travel medicine and safe travel and give you the most current education to help you make an informed decision regarding your health.
Yellow Fever Strikes Brazil
On January 15, 2008, the Brazilian Ministry of Health confirmed three more deaths from yellow fever (YF): two in Goias and one in Parana, bringing the total of confirmed cases of YF in 2008 to six, with five deaths. Their are still fifteen suspected cases under investigation. This is more than any year since 2003, when there were sixty four cases with twenty-three deaths.
One of the fatal cases was an unvaccinated Spanish visitor, who died after two days in a hospital in Goiania on January 12, having been ill for about ten days in the city where the vector mosquito was found. The area has been fogged with insecticide. The man contracted his infection at a farm in Cristianopolis, 103 km (64 mi) from Goiania, where he had spent fifteen days. In an earlier report, his widow complained to the press that they saw no YF warning or proof of vaccination check at Sao Paulo international airport on their arrival on Novemner 25, nor at Salvador or Goiania airports on their travels since.
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which produces YF vaccine, has suspended all exports of the vaccine, and is doubling its production from 15 to 30 million doses this year (2008). It normally supplies 7 million doses to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for distribution to other countries in the Americas.
On January 10, the US Department of State issued an alert, in English, to all its citizens in Brazil, advising them to get vaccinated. It is recommended that all international travelers receive the Yellow Fever vaccination prior to arrival in Brazil.
"Yellow Fever Strikes Brazil." ProMed. http://www.promed.com. 17 Jan 2008.
Diseases Spread North, Global Warming to Blame?
This is an intereting article from the New York Times published on December 23, 2007.
CASTIGLIONE DI CERVIA, Italy — Panic was spreading this August through this tidy village of 2,000 as one person after another fell ill with weeks of high fever, exhaustion and excruciating bone pain, just as most of Italy was enjoying Ferragosto, its most important summer holiday.
Officials set out insect traps and were surprised by what they caught: tiger mosquitoes.
“At one point, I simply couldn’t stand up to get out of the car,” said Antonio Ciano, 62, an elegant retiree in a pashmina scarf and trendy blue glasses. “I fell. I thought, O.K., my time is up. I’m going to die. It was really that dramatic.”
By midmonth, more than 100 people had come down with the same malady. Although the worst symptoms dissipated after a couple of weeks, no doctor could figure out what was wrong.
People blamed pollution in the river. They denounced the government. But most of all they blamed recent immigrants from tropical Africa for bringing the pestilence to their sleepy settlement of pastel stucco homes.
“Why immigrants?” asked Rina Ventura, who owns a shop selling shoes and purses. “I kept thinking of these terrible diseases that you see on TV, like malaria. We were terrified. There was no name and no treatment.”
Oddly, the villagers were both right and wrong. After a month of investigation, Italian public health officials discovered that the people of Castiglione di Cervia were, in fact, suffering from a tropical disease, chikungunya, a relative of dengue fever normally found in the Indian Ocean region. But the immigrants spreading the disease were not humans but insects: tiger mosquitoes, who can thrive in a warming Europe.
Aided by global warming and globalization, Castiglione di Cervia has the dubious distinction of playing host to the first outbreak in modern Europe of a disease that had previously been seen only in the tropics.
“By the time we got back the name and surname of the virus, our outbreak was over,” said Dr. Rafaella Angelini, director of the regional public health department in Ravenna. “When they told us it was chikungunya, it was not a problem for Ravenna any more. But I thought: this is a big problem for Europe.”
The epidemic proved that tropical viruses are now able to spread in new areas, far north of their previous range. The tiger mosquito, which first arrived in Ravenna three years ago, is thriving across southern Europe and even in France and Switzerland.
And if chikungunya can spread to Castiglione — “a place not special in any way,” Dr. Angelini said — there is no reason why it cannot go to other Italian villages. There is no reason why dengue, an even more debilitating tropical disease, cannot as well.
“This is the first case of an epidemic of a tropical disease in a developed, European country,” said Dr. Roberto Bertollini, director of the World Health Organization’s Health and Environment program. “Climate change creates conditions that make it easier for this mosquito to survive and it opens the door to diseases that didn’t exist here previously. This is a real issue. Now, today. It is not something a crazy environmentalist is warning about.”
Was he shocked to discover chikungunya in Italy, his native land? “We knew this would happen sooner or later,” he said. “We just didn’t know where or when.”
It certainly caught this town off guard on Aug. 9, when public health officials in Ravenna received an angry call from Stefano Merlo, who owns the gas station. “Within 100 meters of my home, there were more than 30 people with fevers over 40 degrees,” or 104 Fahrenheit, said Mr. Merlo, 47. “I wanted to know what was going on. I knew it couldn’t be normal.”
August is not the season for high fevers, Dr. Angelini agreed, and within days of interviewing patients she was intrigued. “The stories were so similar and so dramatic,” she said. “But we had no clue it was something tropical.”
Hard-working shopkeepers could not get out of bed because their hips hurt so much. Able-bodied men could not lift spoons to their mouths. (Months later, many still have debilitating joint pain.) From the start, doctors suspected that the disease was spread by insects, rather than people. While almost all homes had one person who was ill, family members seemed not to catch the disease from one another. They initially focused on sand flies, since the disease clustered on streets by the river.
Canceling their traditional mid-August vacations (in Italy, a true sign of panic), health officials sent off blood samples, called national infectious-disease experts, searched the Internet and set out traps to see what insects were in the neighborhood. The first surprise was that the insect traps contained not sand flies but tiger mosquitoes, and huge numbers of them. The scientific survey confirmed what residents of Castiglione had come to accept as a horrible nuisance, though not a deadly threat.
“In the last three or four years, you couldn’t live on these streets because the mosquitoes were so bad,” said Rino Ricchi, a road worker who fell ill, standing at the entrance to his neatly tended garden, where mosquito traps have now replaced decorative fountains. “We used to delight in having a garden or a porch to eat dinner. You couldn’t this year, you’d get eaten alive.”
For the rest of the article go to http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/world/europe/23virus.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=bf19ce7c93a293a6&ex=1199163600&emc=eta1
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