All life evolves. Unfortunately, microbial life can evolve at a much faster rate than we can. We depend on antibiotic drugs like penicillin to treat infections and antiprotozoal drugs like metronidazole to deal with things like amoebic dysentery. The organisms that cause infections and illness can outpace the drugs that target them. In this case, [...]
The Lab
This category provides information about specific diseases, parasites and viruses that a traveler may encounter on their journey. In addition to information about prevention and treatment, you can find information on travel vaccinations and immunizations.
I used to think of tetanus as the disease of rusty nails and locked jaws. Turns out, I didn't know crap about the disease. While it's true that early stages of infection with tetanus bacteria can cause spasms in the jaw muscles, the whole rusty nail thing is a bit overdone. But we'll get to [...]
Historically, doctors, researchers and scientists have tried to figure out both 1) how to develop a malaria vaccine and 2) how to best kill or avoid mosquitos. A new approach that does neither may be more promising than any other previous breakthrough. At Johns Hopkins, scientists have been toying with the idea of killing the [...]
Lyme disease is one the world's more alarming diseases, because it can manifest itself in numerous ways. Transmitted by the bite of certain infected ticks, untreated Lyme Disease can spread throughout the body and can eventually affect the heart and nervous system. While it is treatable with antibiotics, symptoms of Lyme disease have been known [...]
I think we've maxed out our "photos that make you queasy" quota, so we will go with a g-rated picture of some mangoes for this post. If you want to see more graphic content, you can scroll down to the video we have embedded in the post. First, the mango worm goes by many names. [...]
Worms inspire a special fear in people and hookworm sounds particularly awful. If you break the word down into two parts, it doesn't take long to realize that you want neither a hook or a worm inside your body. The disease is so-called because hookworms do in fact have tiny hooks around their mouth that [...]
Cholera is one of the world's more notorious diseases because of its ability to produce outbreaks and quickly kill significant numbers of people. In light of this fact, it is hard to believe that it is actually a highly treatable disease. As a traveler, your risk is relatively low, unless there is an outbreak going [...]
While you're unlikely to come across it, meningococcal disease should be on your radar for the simple fact that it is potentially fatal. The good news is that the disease is rare and it is vaccine-preventable. In this post, we will describe symptoms and tell you where the disease can be found and how it [...]
Japanese encephalitis is yet another mosquito borne illness. Confined to the limited geography of Southeast Asia and the Far East, Japanese encephalitis is rare in travelers, but it's certainly not an illness to take lightly. Acute clinical cases (roughly 1% of cases) of Japanese encephalitis have a fatality rate of 20-30% and among survivors, 30-50% [...]
Outside of the developed world, typhoid is found almost everywhere. Thankfully, it is rarely fatal if treated, and there are easy-to-take preventative measures like getting vaccinated. In addition to prevention, this post will also look at signs and symptoms and treatment. See the map below. Grey indicates little to no risk. Red indicates the highest [...]
