The health risk of taking the road less travelled

This article is one in a series of articles written for Travel Health Plus as part of a larger strategy to improve SEO ranking, company profile, and brand equity.

The whole world is becoming ever more accessible for travellers, holiday makers, and those with itchy-feet-syndrome, thanks to a number of factors, most of them found on the internet. We are now able to book our holiday itinerary without the need to sit in a travel agency (or have any human contact at all), we can afford further afield holidays thanks to increased budget airline competition and online holiday packages, and we are connected to a plethora of information and travel inspiration via social media platforms and the famous hashtag wanderlust. With all of these factors leading to more people moving around the globe, the number of travel-related illnesses are also on the rise – so, is there a connection?

Dr. David Rutherford, Travel Health Plus Director and Doctor, says that the trends are connected and cannot be ignored. “In a recent study of over 2,000 travellers, less than 30% of travellers going to risk areas sought any travel health advice before they left,” says Rutherford, who has dedicated his medical career to travel health and vaccination medicine. “Less than 1 in 5 travellers had the appropriate level of cover for their destinations according to international guidelines, which is quite a worrying statistic,” he says.

Upon checking the places visited in this particular study and the exposures they had while visiting, Rutherford says that travellers were exposed to a number of vaccine preventable diseases; Hepatitis B from sexual contact, Typhoid and Hepatitis A from contaminated food and water, Japanese Encephalitis from mosquitos and Rabies from animal bites and scratches, to name just a few.

Looking back over the last 10 years, Rutherford points out some interesting trends that are showing the strong need for vaccinations and travel health education in our society. “Measles cases have increased 30 times in the last ten years, with travellers, particularly young men and unimmunised children being the main source of measles imported into Australia,” he says. Other illnesses that are now seeing a steady increase, after initially falling dramatically with the introduction of vaccinations, are Hepatitis A, Typhoid, and Chikungunya. “There have been steadily increasing numbers of cases of Typhoid since 2003, particularly from Asia and especially from India and Nepal,” says Rutherford. “Dengue fever was very rarely reported in 2005 but has increased exponentially over the last 5 years … Chikungunya, (fever & arthritis) was the commonest mosquito borne disease notified in Western Australia over the last 2 years, mostly contracted from Bali, and there has since been a 7-fold increase from the year before.”

Illnesses that we are commonly more aware of, such as influenza, malaria, and travellers’ diarrhea, are still carrying increasing risks year after year, warns Rutherford, and need to be looked at with prevention in mind, especially for those in higher risk groups. “There are particular travellers who carry a higher risk and need to prioritise pre-travel advice, such as pregnant women, people with diabetes, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, or an impaired immune system, older travellers and children under 5,” he says.

Rabies post–exposure treatments have also been used in increasing numbers and the Travel Health Plus clinic are treating an average of one exposure each week. Dr. Rutherford states that by far the most common place for this to happen is in Bali and mainly to short term travellers, including children.

While Rutherford celebrates the increase in travel to all areas of the world, his message is one of awareness and education. “I am an avid traveller myself and the experiences I have had abroad have changed my life,” he says. “While more people are travelling, we need to be aware that vaccinations and travel health education play a vital role in keeping us healthy … this message goes for all areas of the world, even those that may seem like a home away from home.”

For further information, visit travelhealth.com.au and please remember to register with Smart Traveller for any overseas travel.