Traveling to a new country or to a new destination within your own country brings along excitement, enthusiasm and an opportunity to be exposed to newer horizons accompanied by lots of adventure and fun. But, just like any other package deal, it is also accompanied by a certain amount of threat of being struck by diseases caused due to exposure and threat of unsafe water. A plain, simple, innocent-looking glass of water is reason enough to make or break your dream vacation, thereby putting you down with diseases like dysentery, diarrhea, hepatitis B, lead poisoning, cholera, typhoid and so on. You can be a victim to these pathogenic organisms anytime, anywhere, from places where there is insufficient and poor sanitation and unavailability of clean drinking water. Therefore, there is a grave requirement of proper planning, preparation and vigilance before stepping forward to travel to a foreign country or place. Just drenching yourself with hand sanitizers, dehydrating your body or getting paranoid about the situation is not going to solve your problem. The need of the hour is to identify the cause of such happenings and take necessary precautions to avoid these life-threatening and equally scary sounding diseases from attacking you while traveling.
Precautions to be taken to protect yourself from water borne diseases while traveling
1. Do not drink tap water
While traveling, especially to third world countries, you should make sure to drink only bottled mineral water. Be sure that the bottle offered to you is sealed and no tampering has been done with it. It is a general practice in many under-developed and developing nations by street vendors and low-grade restaurants to fill up water bottles with tap water, service water or other sources of contaminated water containing amoebas, parasites and other harmful organisms, and offer them to tourists as authentic bottled water. If you are not sure of the authenticity of the water being offered to you, do not drink it. It might just land you in a soup and spoil your trip completely.
2. Avoid using ice cubes while traveling
Ice cubes are another major source of coming in direct contact with contaminated water, thereby inviting diseases like typhoid, diarrhea and cholera while traveling. Being in a frozen state, it is very difficult to determine whether the ice-cubes provided in your drink have been made from a non-contaminated source. Unless and until you are sure of the impeccable reputation of the restaurant or food establishment, do not include ice-cubes in your drinks. Instead, drink lots of distilled and purified water, soda or pop, to prevent you from dehydration.
3. Opt for well cooked food
Especially while traveling to a tropical land, it is advisable to refrain from eating uncooked and raw foods like salads, uncooked vegetables and fruits which do not require peeling. Getting them washed before consumption at the local restaurant can only aggravate the chances of you being attacked by various diseases as they might not be using safe, clean water in doing so. All your efforts of sticking to packaged drinking water throughout your trip may just go in vain by a little carelessness shown at your end. It is best advisable to consume only well-cooked food and fruits which you can peel and wash yourself before eating. You might find local delicacies of under-cooked or raw poultry, meat, eggs and fish being made available in many countries. Try not to get tempted and stay away from them as much as you can.. They may be infected with viruses and bacteria that can totally ruin your trip. Also, consuming dairy products from local, unauthorized vendors can also be unsafe and threatening to your health.
4. Take care of personal hygiene
Make sure to use soap and warm water, if possible, to wash hands properly as tap water may not be safe. You might have stringently followed all precautions to consume only peel-able fruits like oranges and bananas but if your hands are only the source of supplying bacteria and infected germs to your body, then all your precautions to stay healthy, fit and free from water-borne diseases may go down the drains. Moreover, the source for spreading of diseases like typhoid is by coming in direct contact with infected feces. Such situations can be easily avoided and taken care of provided you have the consciousness within yourself to follow basic civic sense. Also, staying away from fly-fatooned food booths can protect you from dysentery and diarrhea, as fliers are the main transporters of such diseases. Before ordering food in a local restaurant, make sure to peep into their bathroom to ensure the presence of soap, so as to be sure that the employees follow sanitation and hygiene.
5. Carry your medicine kit
Before packing your bags to take off to a new holiday destination, make sure to prepare your personal medicine kit which should necessarily include over-the-counter medicines for stomach pain, gas, acidity, headaches, minor infections and also medications for possible water-borne diseases which is quite common, unpredictable and unavoidable. Stock up some bottles of sanitizers which act as boon for protecting you from infection and is also an easy way out to cope with unpleasant encounters like with a coughing or sneezing person. Your medicine case should also be equipped with insect repellent creams and lotions which can save you from a number of nasty diseases. You should also include water purification tablets like Portable Aqua or other handy water purification devices like a combined water-bottle-cum-water-purifier, which can relieve you of the risk of consuming contaminated water.
6. Vaccination and other medical precautions
Make sure to get yourself vaccinated against Hepatitis A and B, typhoid and other common water prone diseases before your traveling date, if you have not been vaccinated against them at a younger age and if you still fall eligible to the category. Although vaccinations do not provide 100% security against occurrence of diseases, but they definitely provide a precautionary shield. The vaccination required by you, however, would depend on the country you are travelling to and also on your doctor’s advice.
7. Find about the coverage of your HMO
Check with your insurance company and make sure your health plans extend coverage for getting sick abroad and backs you up just in case you land up falling ill in a foreign land. If you do not have an advanced comprehensive coverage which facilitates this, you can opt one for a short-term health insurance plan, especially formulated to keep you under cover while you are outside your homeland.
8. Get acquainted with your hosts
Do your homework well before starting off for your holiday to an altogether new destination by delving into researching about the state of sanitation prevalent in that country, availability and quality of water there, location of the nearest hospital from the place where you would be putting up, possibilities of occurrence of water borne infections or other contagious diseases and so on. Being updated about these important information in detail can assist you in better planning of your holiday and avoiding unforeseen problems. There is more to being well-informed about the country’s travel itenaries where you are going which can ensure you of a safe, pleasant, fun-filled and disease-free holiday experience.
9. Get your mobile browser working
Keep your mobile browser active at any given point of time as it would keep you updated with current affairs and events prevailing in that part of the world where you would be traveling to relax and rejuvenate your senses. Any epidemic breakout or health threat, which might raise a question on your safety, would be intimated to you without delay. Also, keep referring to the worldwide web on a constant and regular basis if you have any queries regarding the safety of anything that is new to you.
According to a report analysis by World Health Organization, 2 million deaths every year are accounted to diarrheal diseases, out of which 88% is a result of poor sanitation, hygiene and unsafe water supply. These situations are more prevalent in third world countries, although, one can contract them even while traveling in one’s own home town or from any corner of the planet. Statistics further reveal some shocking facts which are enough to scare you off and leave you speechless. According to the most recent records, based on real findings, more than 1 billion people across the world lack accessibility to clean water and more than 2 billion are deprived of access to basic sanitation. These results should be sufficient enough to make you realize the importance and requirement of following proper precautionary steps before planning a vacation to any corner of the globe in an attempt to protect yourself from water-borne and other related diseases.
