by Alva Nawrocki; Mesa, AZ
Last year when my husband, Armin, and I were planning which trip on our “bucket list” would be our next, we ran into a glitch. We wanted to go on a safari and visit Cape Town in South Africa, but my husband couldn’t take antimalarial medication due to doctor’s orders.
As of March 28, the number of confirmed cases of polio in Syria had reached 38, with scores more children having symptoms. One case was confirmed in Iraq.
Syria had been declared polio-free in 1999, but the crippling disease reappeared in October 2013 in the Deir al-Zor (Deir Ezzor) province, where much of the infrastructure has been destroyed by the ongoing civil war.
What would you do if you got sick abroad or if your previously stable medical condition worsened abroad?
While much has been printed in ITN about travel health insurance, little has been written about the measures you should take proactively to get the best medical care when abroad. Below, I will indicate these measures.
Parts of the following information have been paraphrased from http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel and other CDC sites. I purposely have omitted information about travel insurance.
PREVENTION
Traveling by myself in November ’13 on a tour arranged by a tour company, I was using Djibouti as a base of operations to fly to Puntland, Somalia, and to Mogadishu, Somalia, and back. The flights required that I pass through the Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport security, first while entering the terminal and then at the gate for departure. On the return flight, I had to pass through security again in the Customs area.
Djibouti’s terminal did not have that many security officers, so I saw the same officers many times over the days I was operating out of Djibouti.
I suggest every traveler, especially anyone who is older, get a flu shot for protection at home and while abroad.
Keep the portion of the receipt that shows the date you were given the vaccine and pack it with your documents. This is valuable in a situation such as when an epidemic breaks out in a place like China. Without this proof of protection, there’s a possibility you could be quarantined and detained from leaving one country and entering another.
My husband, Pete, and I have traveled to Europe many times by the “seat of our pants” without any major problems. This was not the case on our May 8-June 6, 2012, trip.
We started off from Paris in our leased new Peugeot from Auto France (Rutherford, NJ; 800/572-9655). The 30-day rental cost $1,457, with bumper-to-bumper insurance coverage (including liability).
I frequently travel to developing countries, including Kenya in August ’12. I have never found a truly competent doctor to advise me about travel vaccinations until now.
Having operated a business in Denmark for many years, I had to fly between Copenhagen and Los Angeles every other month. The 9-hour time change flying east was a killer. Leaving L.A. at the end of one day, I would arrive in early afternoon the next day. And I had to work at meetings, etc., so I could not afford to have jet lag. The following became my remedy.
Having flown long distance many times in 30 years of international travel, my husband, Bernie, and I noticed that we get more jet-lagged going eastward and a little less so on our westbound trips, though, in either direction, jet lag leaves us feeling tired and not so alert upon our arrival.
We’ve made two good discoveries.
For the problem of swollen feet when flying, we wear compression socks during each flight, which also help prevent deep vein thrombosis.
(Second of three parts)