Yellow Fever alert alarms Brazil

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Title – Yellow Fever alert alarms Brazil
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 11th January 2008

Travel Health should be near the top of anyone’s agenda when they are planning to travel. Some vaccinations can take weeks to organise or involve a series of treatments over months. Generally you should visit your doctor or travel clinic at least six weeks before you plan to set off, to ensure you will be able to complete any vaccination process prior to departure.

There are sporadic outbreaks of different diseases across the world at any one time, some are just worth knowing about so you can take a little extra care, others will require you to seek additional medical advice and others still can require you to change your plans completely. Where there is a serious outbreak of disease, the local medical facilities may barely be able to cope, the last thing they need is more people (tourists) turning up, falling ill and further stretching their facilities.

This recent outbreak of yellow fever does seem to be serious, but also seems to be under control, but travellers should still seek specific advice from a medical practitioner before travelling.

As with all mosquito borne diseases, effective prevention measures can reduce the risks substantially. On our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop (GYITSA) we examine diseases including yellow fever and dengue and we discuss what prevention and protection solutions there are from insect borne diseases.

The risk of yellow fever may be reduced by effective prevention techniques, but only you will know that. Many countries will expect you to have a yellow fever vaccination certificate to gain entry to their country, if you have previously visited an endemic yellow fever region of the world.

Dengue fever is also a great concern, with no effective vaccination or cure, prevention is doubly important. Do not be fooled by the 'relatively' low fatality rate (98 out of 438,000 in Brazil in 2007). Although the odds of survival are 'relatively' good, it is a very debilitating disease. It will certainly cut short your trip and can take months to recover from even with supportive medical care. Don’t take risks, protect yourself! If you want to find out the best way to do this attend our workshop.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com