Today, travelling overseas doesn’t just mean visiting your annual beach resort holiday like it once use to. Nowadays, the varieties of destinations we desire to visit are many, and we’re blessed with the options we have. Even though Brits are still flocking to Spain, Americans are still visiting Hawaii and Australians are still travelling to Bali, it has to be said more and more of us are travelling regularly, longer and further than ever before. With the introduction of budget airlines, social media and the ongoing rush to travel, we’re more inclined to seek alternative places to travel and explore. This may range from venturing deep into the Amazon rainforest or off the beaten track in rural Southeast Asia. However, with all the exposure travel brings such as the exciting adventures and new experiences, in parallel, travel can also expose us to new, foreign and serious health risks. 

It’s common for travellers to get ill whilst overseas and whilst we might be thinking of something as common as food poisoning or traveller’s diarrhoea, there are more serious life-threatening diseases to think about. It’s pretty safe to say one of the worst if scenarios would be to get seriously ill abroad that ruins the whole trip, but not just that, our everlasting health. We’ve all seen at least one post via social media, maybe a friend or a friend of a friend, who’s lied up in bed, sick and in a foreign hospital. Yet, most of the time the key to keep the risk of getting ill low is about real travel health preparation. Making sure you’ve sought the right travel health advice is imperative to you and your trip. Your health is your responsibility, and the risks you put yourself are based on your individual medical history, duration, destination, and season of travel. Prior to your travels, you should seek advice approximately 6-8 weeks before. Not doing this not only puts you at unnecessary risk, but a little worry kept in the back of your mind.

If you’re like most of us who aim to seek travel health advice, you’re more likely to travel farther and more regularly than the ones who don’t.

As part of your travel preparation, you need to:

Research Your Destinations

Seek out which country has bad outbreaks of disease-carrying mosquito’s, or tampered water or wild insects and animals. Not every country has the same facilities and structures. Some countries may have outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as the Zika virus recently in Brazil, or Ebola in parts of Africa. Keep an eye out for any developing concerns.

Medical Facilities

Although medical care abroad varies, many countries have high quality medical facilities. Yet, medical facilities in some countries aren’t easily available or at the high standard you might find in western nations, so it’s important to be aware of that prior to travelling. It’s not uncommon that in less developed nations, medical facilities may not what you expect and that infrastructures are scarcely different to what you maybe provided elsewhere. If in the case you do need urgent and quality medical assistance abroad, that could possibly derive from lack of travel health preparation, finding this then may be a challenge, and even if you do, an inevitable and unnecessary expense.

Obtain Quality Travel Insurance

If you get into a situation where you’ll need to front medical costs abroad, you’ll want a quality travel insurer to cover you. Everyone get’s travel insurance, especially for long-term travellers because the risk isn’t worth deteriorating your health, ruining your trip or losing belongings without it.

When seeking travel health advice, you need to:

Outline Destinations Visiting

Informing your travel health specialist of the destinations you intend to visit will be probably the first conversation you’ll have. Every country has different risks that might require different advice and precautions. Even if there are countries not on your initial itinerary but you may think about visiting, include them in the conversation too.

Special Activities Or Excursions

If you’re reaching higher altitudes, partaking in extreme sports or venturing into unknown territories, you should divulge this information to your health specialist too. Some travellers can become insistent on being different by ignoring the value of informing not only health specialists, but also family of their whereabouts and activities. This doesn’t help anyone and if you’ve ever seen the movie 127 Hours, based on a very true story, you’ll know how damaging that can be.

Inform Of Any Existing Medical Conditions

Anything that you’ve been diagnosed with, or have had issues with needs to be disclosed to a health specialist. By doing this, can save you from any health risk mishaps on the road. This could be if you’re diabetic or any past injuries. Remember this is important because travelling isn’t everyday routine life. Your body will be exposed to different climates, terrain, environments, foods, cultures and paths that may affect your health.

Discuss Vaccinations If Necessary

Vaccination recommendations depend on the destinations you’ll be visiting and the type of activities you’ll be doing. This needs to be discussed with your travel health specialist prior to travelling. If you don’t, and don’t obtain the required vaccinations, you can be prevented from entering a country. For example, proof of the Yellow Fever vaccine is required in some countries or when crossing borders. Without it, you can be turned away from entering.

Why MASTA Works For You

Even though you should seek travel advice 6-8 weeks in advance of travel, MASTA is flexible for appointments weekdays, evenings and weekends at short notice across the clinic network. In one sitting MASTA’s dedicated health nurse specialists can provide both the required consultation and vaccinations necessary. MASTA even provides health assessments over the phone which means that patients can have the initial consultation then seek a registered pharmacy clinic for the vaccinations when suits elsewhere.

MASTA offer travel health consultations, vaccinations, anti malarias and travel related items. For over 30 years MASTA has been at the forefront of travel health. Now, MASTA operates one of the largest network of private clinics in the UK with over 170 locations.