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Exotic Diseases Ride Home With Ignorant Vacationers

Travelers who don't get vaccinations endanger themselves, others

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

September 2, 2007

The public passion for exotic getaways, coupled with low-cost flights, has created a bonanza for malicious bugs capable of killing unsuspecting human carriers.

Many of those bugs are booking free rides back to European and American cities from their preferred homes in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Public health officials in the United Kingdom report a 69 per cent spike in reports of typhoid fever and a sharp jump in cases of malaria (10,889 from 2001-2006). Of the 248 typhoid cases reported in 2006, 122 were contracted on trips.

Proper pre-travel vaccination would help, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), but many vacationers don’t consider themselves at risk.

The WHO says more than two million typhoid deaths per year could be prevented through vaccination. Preventative shots are also available for hepatitis B, rabies, tuberculosis, diphtheria, yellow fever, and encephalitis, while several different drugs are available to fight various strains of malaria.

Typhoid has a myriad of symptoms, including loss of appetite, joint pain, fever, and constipation. Though potentially fatal, it can be treated with antibiotics if detected early.

Public ignorance about the need for vaccination is surprisingly high, according to WHO officials as well as health authorities in Great Britain and the United States.

According to Dr. Jane Zuckerman, director of the Centre for Travel Medicine at London’s Royal Free Hospital, "We run a real risk of spreading disease if enough of us decide not to inoculate. We have seen vaccine-preventable diseases like typhoid on the increase because people travel abroad to endemic areas without being vaccinated and return sick."

Polls in England show two-thirds of the people do not know typhoid could be prevented by vaccination.

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