Smart Travel: Reasearch, precations make for safe traveling

Your travels, whether for business or pleasure, need not be hazardous to your health. Even if you enjoy excellent health at home, the stress and the irregular schedules of meals and sleep can set you up for a variety of illnesses and discomforts. In addition, certain destinations expose travelers to unexpected health risks. Here are some suggestions for healthy travel:

If you take medications regularly or are on a medication temporarily, be sure to take an adequate supply with you. Take the medication in prescription bottles, if possible, and take them in your carry-on luggage rather than your checked luggage. If you forget your medicine, or it gets lost on the way, it may be very difficult to replace.

In foreign countries the names of medications may be different or language barriers may exist. In developing countries, the medical infrastructure may be primitive. The same warning applies to your eyeglasses or contacts. Take a spare pair of glasses and extra contacts when you travel, they will be difficult or impossible to replace.

Good hand washing helps prevent infections, but sometimes it will be difficult to find a place to wash your hands. Carry some packets of wipes or towelettes that contain alcohol, or a bottle of hand sanitizing gel and use these frequently, particularly when shopping or shaking hands with strangers. When in doubt, drink bottled water, coffee, tea, soda or beer, all of which may be far safer than the local tap water. On flights, if you end up seated next to a person with a heavy cough, quietly ask the flight attendant to move your seat. This request is becoming more difficult to fulfill as flights are often filled to capacity, but the change could prevent you from contracting a cold, flu or even tuberculosis.

Americans live in the cleanest country in the world, so our bodies don't need to develop immunity to the myriad infections present in less developed countries. As a result, when we travel to these developing countries, we become victims. Canada and most Western European nations are relatively safe for Americans. But in Eastern European countries, Asia, Africa and Central and South America, there are many areas that lack the level of sanitation we are used to. Water and food may be unsafe for consumption, and serious diseases, such as malaria and typhoid fever, may be prevalent.

When you are planning travel to potentially dangerous destinations, your travel agent should warn you that health risks exist but should not be expected to give specific health information. To serve the need for such information, a new specialty in medicine has emerged. That specialty is Travel Medicine and there are about 600 travel medicine physicians world-wide at the time of this writing. Two such specialists practice in Springfield. They are members of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) and are trained to research your travel destination and provide advice, medications and immunizations needed to protect you from serious diseases prevalent in the countries you will be visiting.

(Linda & Dr. Don Overend are owners of Ozark World Travel. Ozark World Travel will in June become part of The Travel Group.)