Welcome to our fourth travel health round-up (see previous round-ups here), in which we share travel health related blog posts and news items that we find interesting, occasionally disgusting, and often instructive. If you have any suggestions for the next one, get in touch.
Our News
We started off the week with an article on malaria myths and facts, which you should check out if you want to learn a little bit more about the disease and some of the many misperceptions. We also wrote a post on our 7 favorite travel health products. If you have a guest post idea relating to travel health, get in touch with us on the contact page. This could be anything from a story involving illness on the road to a piece of travel health advice.
Blogs we’ve been enjoying
Seven Tips for Dealing with Illness When Traveling
We found this guest post from Anya Clowers on LandLopers to be really helpful. A lot is written on preventing illness on the road, but it’s harder to find content explaining what to do once you’ve already come down with something. This engaging post does just that. Also check out Matt’s earlier article on staying healthy on the road, which is filled with great tips as well.
5 Ways To Stay Fit And Healthy While Travelling
This post, from Nicole at Woman Seeks World, is loaded with practical and helpful advice for staying both fit and healthy while traveling. A lot of healthy travel posts have tips that are simply unrealistic for the frequent traveler. Nicole does a good job of being both realistic and helpful.
How To Exercise When Travelling
In her post, Nicole mentioned hotel rooms and parks being the new gym. This post, from Anthony at Postive World Travel, takes that thought a step further with some specific exercises. I plan on being more diligent with my fitness on my next trip and I will definitely be consulting this post again in the future.
You Can’t Control the Pitch
Matt, who writes the blog 1 Year Sabbatical, was previously featured in our travel health disasters series. He is currently planning a year long sabbatical in Indonesia with his family. As he explains in this post, he was just thrown a major curve ball: a persistent gastrointestinal issue has led to some unexpected medical bills. While this post does address travel health in a sense, we’ve included it because it’s seriously motivating (as is much of the content on Matt’s site). Check it out.
An up close and personal look at the American medical system – and it’s not good news
A serious and troubling reflection on health care in America from Nancy, who blogs at Family on Bikes. Nancy explains that her husband recently had emergency surgery to remove his appendix and their family is now dealing with expensive bills and questionable, if any, support from their insurance company. This really speaks to me as I am paying for my own insurance right now and the coverage you get from purchasing an individual policy is really awful unless you are willing to break the bank. I can’t imagine having to deal with this as a family.
News Stories
India orders poultry culling after bird flu outbreak
In West Bengal state’s Nadia district, the H5 strain of avian influenza has been found in poultry samples. As a result, the government is culling all birds in the affected area (a 3-kilometer radius). Currently, the WHO is closing monitoring any and all outbreaks of the H5N1 flu (bird flu). For more information on this strain of influenza, visit the WHO site here.
Dengue outbreak: Cases in Punjab reach 9,402
The outbreak of Dengue Fever in the Punjab province of Pakistan is not improving. As of yesterday, there were 9,402 reported cases in the province. Sri Lanka, recently recovered from their own Dengue outbreak, is now coordinating efforts with Pakistan to help control the epidemic.
Travelers warned about dengue fever in The Bahamas
There have been an estimated 1,000 cases in the Bahamas since August 9th. The local government, which, as we reported in an earlier round-up, initially denied charges of a dengue outbreak, has now issued a public service advisory signaling increased dengue activity. See what the CDC has to say about it here.
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Some really good stuff here! Thanks for including a link to my post. It’s been an interesting experience dealing with health issues before embarking on a big trip. It’s yet another reminder to live your dreams now while you are healthy and able and not put things off because you think you’ll always have a tomorrow. At some point tomorrow will be too late.
Great advice, Matt. I think a lot of people need to also realize how thankful they should be if they are in good health. Definitely something that too many people take for granted.