Travel illnesses: Tips for prevention and treatment

Nausea, diarrhea, runny nose: Poor health can ruin the best trip. Find out how to protect yourself against travel illnesses and enjoy your vacation carefree.

After a long time of anticipation, great frustration – nothing is as annoying as getting sick during your vacation or on a trip around the world. But when you travel, you expose yourself to special risks. That’s why it’s even more likely to get sick on the move than at home. It is usually not an infectious or tropical disease, but one of these harmless but annoying ailments: Indigestion, motion sickness, or a simple cold. Even if they cannot always be avoided, prevention is possible in many cases.

Motion sickness (kinetosis)

Just left and already miserable? Motion sickness can affect susceptible people in practically any means of transportation: On ships (sea sickness), by car, bus, or tilting train (land sickness) or plane. Kinetosis often manifests itself as chills, pallor, and cold sweat. Later, dizziness, headache, nausea, and vomiting may occur. Children are often particularly affected. Plastic bags, wipes, and disinfectants should always be at hand.

Tips against motion sickness

1. Don't travel on an empty stomach. Eat something light before you leave and have snacks ready for when you're on the go. 
2. Chew gum. Preferably with ginger or other active ingredients for nausea. Alternatively, pharmacies also offer tablets or patches for motion sickness.
3. Stay hydrated. Drink water, tea, or diluted fruit juices – not too much at once, but often. Alcohol and coffee tend to be counterproductive.
4. Take the right seat. Sit in the direction of travel, as far in front as possible, with a view of the road. Ship: It’s calmest in the middle. Fresh air and a view of the horizon also help. Airplane: It shakes least over the wings.
5. Sleep during travel. For children, but also some adults, this is the best remedy against nausea. If that doesn’t work, distract yourself with a pleasant activity – listening to music and singing along, making up stories, guessing games, etc.

Traveling diarrhea (diarrhea)

Diarrhea is a typical travel illness and is very common during stays abroad. Sensitive stomachs can even get upset simply from the excitement of the journey. Next, unfamiliar foods as well as bacteria affect the digestive tract. What locals can easily consume, many of us can’t tolerate: We react with discomfort, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Usually such stomach upsets are mild. In more severe cases, increased fluid loss (dehydration) can be dangerous, especially in babies and toddlers. If in doubt, you should consult a doctor or hospital. 

Particularly aggressive germs can even trigger food poisoning with severe abdominal cramps and diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. These symptoms should disappear on their own within two to three days. However, it may take a little longer for you to feel healthy and strong again.

Prevent diarrhea and food poisoning

1. Careful with fruits and vegetables. Here’s the rule: “Boil it, cook it, or peel it.” If you heat, cook or peel raw food, you are on the safe side.
2. In case of doubt, do without the food in question. Open ice cream, salad from the buffet, warm and warmed dishes, undercooked meat, raw seafood, raw and soft eggs can be problematic.
3. Boil drinking water. Use only boiled water or mineral water from sealed bottles for drinking and brushing your teeth. Go without ice cubes. 

Treat gastrointestinal diseases

1. Compensate for fluid loss. Drink plenty throughout the day. Still water, black or peppermint tea, or highly diluted apple juice are suitable. 
2. Eat light meals. Eat little or nothing at first. Then start slowly with something easy to digest – avoid hot, bloating, greasy, and overly sweet foods.
3. Gain strength. Rest and give your body enough time to recover. If you don’t want to miss anything, you might miss the most in the end ...

Colds and stuffy noses

Barely on vacation and already have a cold – this is unfortunately not uncommon. The reasons for this are manifold:

• Different climate. Extreme cold or heat, but also wind, drafts, fans, and air conditioning systems are not tolerated by many people. Large temperature differences are particularly unhealthy: The difference between indoor and outdoor air should ideally not exceed 6° Celsius.
• Foreign pathogens. Viruses and bacteria that “catch our body's defenses cold” are often found abroad: An enemy you don’t know is hard to fight. As a result, we are sometimes less protected against infectious diseases when traveling than at home.
• Leisure sickness: Some people almost always get sick when they are on vacation. Why is this? The abrupt change from stress to relaxation affects our natural defenses. Sometimes symptoms of illness can be suppressed just long enough for the stress of everyday life to subside. Excitement and lack of sleep, jet lag, and time differences can take their toll on an already weakened immune system.

Tips against colds

1. Work-life balance. Try not to exert yourself too much in your day-to-day work. Integrate small breaks so that you still have a little energy left over for your vacation – because you will need it. 
2. Avoid freezing. Always take an extra item of clothing and, if necessary, a scarf for your stay in air-conditioned rooms or means of transportation. If you get chilly on the plane, be sure to ask for a blanket. In particular, protect your head, neck, and shoulders from cold and drafts.
3. Caution, droplet infection! When traveling, many people are often together in a small space. Consider wearing a mask. Also get a seawater nasal spray to keep your nose moist despite dry air. 
4. Observe hand hygiene. Hand washing is especially important on the go, but often difficult. Therefore, make sure you have hand disinfectant. Do not touch your mouth, nose, or eyes when traveling.
5. Settle in slowly. A strenuous journey, a different time zone, a different bed, different food – the body easily gets confused. Allow plenty of time to rest and settle in. Make sure you don’t overload your program throughout your vacation.

Tropical diseases

Careful travel planning also includes clarifying travel medical questions: What diseases are more prevalent at your destination? Who is particularly at risk? How can you prevent infection? Who is recommended to get vaccinated? Please note: Deal with the subject of vaccinations at an early stage. Sometimes several doses are needed. And after that, it may take a while for full immunization to build up. For more information, consult HealthyTravel, the website of the Swiss Committee of Experts on Travel Medicine. There you will also find a directory of experts who can advise you professionally in advance of your trip.

By the way, all major tropical diseases are spread by mosquitoes, food/drinking water, or bodily fluids.

Transmission by mosquitoes

These are the most common infectious diseases spread by mosquito bites:

• Chikungunya fever (no vaccination)
• Dengue fever (vaccination in Germany)
• Yellow fever (vaccination in Switzerland)
• Malaria (medicinal prophylaxis)
• Zika virus(no vaccination)

Effective mosquito protection consists of these three measures:

1. Long clothes in light colors, preferably also impregnated with an insecticide
2. Mosquito repellent (e.g. spray or cream) for the skin, active ingredient depending on the region
3. Mosquito net for sleeping, can already be purchased impregnated

Contaminated water or food

Contaminated water or food may in particular transmit Hepatitis A or Typhoid. A vaccination against both diseases is available in Switzerland. Nevertheless, take care to ensure careful food hygiene in risk areas:

1. Avoid raw seafood
2. Peel raw fruit/vegetables
3. Boil water

Infection by bodily fluids

For example, the bodily fluids of infected people or animals can transmit these diseases:

• Hepatitis B
• Ebola fever (often fatal!)
• Rabies (almost always fatal!)

Avoid contact with the bodily fluids of other people and wildlife to prevent infection. Before staying in risk areas, it is advisable to get the respective vaccination. Vaccines against hepatitis B and rabies are available in Switzerland. Vaccinations against Ebola are currently only available in a few African countries.