The single most useful thing you can do before an international trip is to sit down with a clinician who understands travel medicine, ideally six to eight weeks before departure. Many travellers leave this to the last minute, then discover that the vaccines they need require a course spread over several weeks, or that the … Read more
Malaria remains one of the most serious health threats facing travellers to tropical regions, and it is also one of the most preventable. Each year, people return from holidays and business trips with malaria they could have avoided, sometimes with fatal consequences, because they underestimated the risk or stopped their tablets too early. Understanding how … Read more
Of all the ailments that interrupt a trip abroad, travellers’ diarrhoea is by far the most common. Depending on the destination, between twenty and sixty percent of travellers to lower-income regions experience it, usually within the first week. While rarely dangerous for otherwise healthy adults, it can ruin days of a carefully planned journey, and … Read more
The mountains have never been more accessible. Trekkers walk to Everest Base Camp, tourists fly into high Andean cities, and pilgrims travel to shrines perched thousands of metres above sea level. Yet altitude remains one of the most underestimated hazards in travel medicine. Altitude illness does not care how fit or experienced you are, and … Read more
Yellow fever occupies a unique place in travel medicine. It is the only vaccine that countries are legally permitted to require for entry under international health regulations, and a small yellow certificate can determine whether you are allowed to cross a border. For travellers to parts of Africa and South America, understanding both the disease … Read more
A thoughtfully assembled travel health kit is one of the least glamorous but most useful things you can pack. When you fall ill or injure yourself far from home, the difference between a minor inconvenience and a miserable ordeal often comes down to whether you have the right item within reach. Pharmacies abroad may be … Read more
Having a long-term health condition is no reason to stay home. Millions of people with diabetes, heart disease, asthma, kidney problems, and other chronic illnesses travel widely every year. But travelling well with a chronic condition takes more preparation than the average trip, because the disruptions of travel, from time-zone shifts to unfamiliar food and … Read more
For many of the most serious illnesses a traveller can encounter, there is no vaccine and no preventive tablet. Dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and several others are spread by mosquitoes and ticks, and the only reliable defence is to avoid being bitten in the first place. Insect-bite prevention is therefore one of the most important, and … Read more