Job Discussion Forums

zaneth · Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 8:50 am Post subject: tropical diseases?

In the world of adventuresome travellers, there are always worries raised by well meaning friends and relatives (gangsters, medical care, etc. etc, ad nauseam). We're used to it, we tell people no problem.

But I must confess to being a little leary of the tropical disease thing. Just another thing that people use to make themselves sound brave and adventurous? Or a real threat to long term happiness?

You folks in the tropics, what are your thoughts?

Eijse · Joined: 17 Dec 2003 Posts: 119 Location: Yemen (Aden)

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Dear Zaneth,
What tropical disease and where? Anywhere with enough moeny to pay English teachers usually has enough money to afford reasonable health care and sanitation. Apart from Ebiola (and possibly Rift Valley Fever) you should survive, though if you get dengue you may hope you don't.

The most lethal epidemic in the last hundred years has been Spanish flu, which left the tropics fairly unscathed.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Malaria ? There are prophylactics.

Bilharzia ? Don't swim.

What else are you worried about ?

Syphilis ? Be celibate !

zaneth · Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 12:10 pm Post subject:

Ha ha ha. No Syphillis WON'T be a problem.

Yeah, dengue was on the top of my list.

Ok, so just another scare thing? Thanks for the reassurance.

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

Dengue is an urban disease. The dengue lava likes staying in small water containers such as discarded yoghurt pots, plastic lunch packet wrappers, syrofoam cups and plates and so on.

In Colombo there have been about 150 cases so far this year. Most of them have been in the richer districts since it is there that people have the money to buy yoghurt or dirinks in paper cups, and the gardens t have them discarded in. It appears that most of the cases were being treated in the private hospitals. They having the pre-monsoon inspections, with large fines for those that don't clear up the offending objects, but obviously the next day there will be more there.

Malaria mosquito larvae like larger expanses of water. Tney are placing guppies in irrigation and rain water tanks to eat the larvae, and I get the impression that even in the North it is no longer a great problem.

Now the real inconvenience, and it may be enough to drive you away from tropical countres, are simply the standard mosquito bites. If you can manage to avoid those using mosquito repellant, mosquito nets, coils, elecronic killers (you can get the type that last for 45 days without a refill) and always wearing long sleeves and shoes (though there are mosquitos that can bite through leather), then you have coincidentally considerably reduced your chances of catching dengue fever.

Aramas · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 3:26 am Post subject:

Dengue pops up here in north Queensland from time to time, along with Ross River Fever. It tends to be very localised (usually just a few blocks), so unless you're unlucky enough to live near the epicentre then you can just stay away.

Things such as traffic, wet floors and dodgy power cords are far more dangerous.

The most dangerous place in the world is your home, and the second most dangerous is your car.

The most dangerous people in the world are your friends and family.

Joachim · Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Posts: 311 Location: Brighton, UK

I would be more worried about food poisoning, which seems to be the main ailment that strikes me and my colleagues. Just innoculated against anything major before you travel, and avoid malaria zones as the preventative drugs have severe side effects.

If you come to a SARS area then wear a surgical mask if you feel unwell.

grahamb · Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945

Worth considering is innoculation against Hepatitis B. Very handy in the event of a blood transfusion, be it in the tropics or the frozen wastes.

zaneth · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 9:42 am Post subject:

I was talking to a friend once about mosquito control measures in Cuba. I said, oh yeah, like doing away with old tires and stuff? He said that now they've moved on to discarded eggshells.

Had the hep injection series before I left. Mosquitoes I have more than enough here in Russia in this flat boggy forested place I live, though only during the summer. Do they have a season in the tropics or they're all year?

Biting through leather? I guess it makes since, it's skin and all.

I found a mosquitoe larva in my glass of water once in Burma.

I was in India and Burma once but I was sort of chronically sick the whole time. If it was a way of life I don't know if I could handle it. I'd love to go back, though, circumstances permitting.

I guess there are lots of ESL teachers working in the tropics and getting by.

Ben Round de Bloc · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1946

nomadder · Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 7:18 pm Post subject:

Been sick a few times from Mexico to Costa Rica. Worse than other trips. Once slightly seriously. Suspect someone tainted the water supply at my Spanish school as someone reported seeing this. Then the food in the homestay was suspect too. Not much soap and hot water in these parts.

Heard of lots of people with the more minor probs-vomit and the other. Met a guy who was in the hospital for 2 weeks in Managua. Not sure what happened there.

Lots of stories of chronic stomach upsets in South America. Many get tested and take pills for parasites, etc.

Knock on wood I�ve been Ok for awhile. Maybe built up immunities plus more careful and in a cleaner country at the moment. So far haven't heard much about the bug borne diseases but the rainy season is just about to start.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

You'll get traveller's diarrhoea wherever you go. I even get it when I go back to England.

Strangely enough, the only place I never got it was India.

I've been to Sri Lanka about fifteen times now, and hangovers have been the main health related problem! One thing I find is that I never develop resistance to mosquito bites, even after a couple of months. To make things worse, they appear to have banned anit-histamines, so if I forget to pack them I find I can't buy them in the only country I need them!