Travelling is fun and all but you need to remember that the chance to get sick is also high. Your body will need to adapt and adjust to the new environment especially when you travel abroad.
It is great to spend your time to the fullest by exploring many places. However, you might as well take proper precautions to prevent you from falling ill during your exciting travel. There are conventional rules you can follow while travelling abroad but it doesn’t guarantee you are safe from getting sick.
The best thing to do is to research about your travel destination beforehand. Thus, you can plan and prepare anything to avoid getting sick based on the knowledge you got from the research.
What causes travelers to fall ill?
There are many ways travelers can get sick while enjoying travel overseas. It is true that every individual has their own level of immune system. However, there are common causes to make travelers easier to get sick such as:
- Ignoring the needs of body to get proper rest and sleep is the most common cause of travelers getting sick during their journey. The excitement often leads to ignorance to sleep properly. In the end, travelers end up giving up their needs to sleep or drinking caffeine to the max level to stay awake. Travelling overseas can cause jetlag and it can influence traveler’s sleeping habit. However, cutting off sleep can lead to drowsiness and immune system will be weakening in this state. It is then easier for body to be attacked by bacteria or virus.
- Forgetting or skipping necessary vaccination is truly bad idea. There are some destinations that require visitors to have certain vaccines before visiting. It is easy to find out what kind of vaccine needed to visit certain destination since it is listed in The Centers of Disease Control. By having necessary vaccine before going to travel destination. It can prevent travelers from getting unwanted diseases. Thus, it is important for travelers to check up overall health condition and get shot of important diseases before travelling to some countries such as India, Africa, etc.
- Drinking local water can cause traveler to get sick because not all places have high health standards of tap water. Unhealthy or unfiltered water contains lots of bacteria which can cause many sicknesses such as diarrhea or nausea. Therefore, it is highly recommended to drink sealed bottles of water instead to avoid bacterial infections. It is also a great idea to bring filtering water bottle when travelling overseas.
- Eating local foods randomly without research beforehand can cause travelers to get sick. The cause is not necessarily always due to unsanitary ingredients of cooking method. It can be due to unfamiliarity to the stomach. When unfamiliar foods are consumed, it can affect the way the body digest and can lead to refusal which makes travelers get upset stomach instead. Thu, it is important to find out what you are going to consume before regretting your choice of foods.