For many younger holidaymakers, getting a tattoo done while on your gap year is a common occurrence, but after a traveller from Western Australia contracted HIV from a tattoo they got whilst on holiday in Bali, health authorities have been keen to warn against such activities.
The UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said it is aware of nine cases of Legionnaires’ disease in people who have travelled to Corfu since August. The HPA is currently working with colleagues in the UK, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Greek Public Health authorities to collect and share further information regarding a possible source or sources.
UK-based healthcare provider MediCare International has looked at the top types of claims it has received over the past two years in order to reveal which conditions are most prevalent. The company said that the results of its research not only reflect the most common complaints, but the fact that being in a new and different environment can also have an impact on one’s health.
Thailand’s Department of Disease Control has released its report into the deaths of five tourists and a local guide that occurred in January and February this year, but the findings show that while exposure to pesticides probably killed the women, the exact cause of the deaths may never be known
The UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) has released new figures that show the number of UK travellers found to be suffering from dengue fever has more than doubled in the past year.
As of 2nd May, more than 214 countries and overseas territories or communities worldwide have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 18,001 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) is actively monitoring the progress of the pandemic through frequent consultations with WHO Regional Offices and Member States, and through the monitoring of multiple sources of information.
The most active areas of pandemic influenza virus transmission are currently in parts of West Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. In the temperate zone of the northern and southern hemisphere, overall pandemic influenza activity remains sporadic. Seasonal influenza virus type B continues to be detected sporadically across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, however, low levels of late season virus circulation have primarily been detected in East and Central Asia, southern Europe, and central Africa.
In the tropical zone of the Americas, limited data suggests that the pandemic influenza virus transmission remains active in several countries. In Central America, Guatemala reported three consecutive weeks of an increasing trend of respiratory diseases activity associated with regional spread of pandemic influenza virus and detection of severe cases. In Cuba, detections of pandemic virus and numbers of severe cases have increased since late March, however overall pandemic influenza activity may have recently peaked, according to the WHO. Although the overall intensity of respiratory diseases across the region remained low to moderate during April 2010, for short periods of time, circulation of pandemic influenza virus was reported to widespread (in Cuba and Barbados) or regional (in Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia).
In Southeast Asia, the pandemic influenza virus continues to actively circulate in several countries of the region; however, respiratory disease trends in the region are variable. In Malaysia, limited data suggests that pandemic influenza virus transmission persists with ongoing reports of new cases (including severe cases) and media reports of several school outbreaks, particularly during late April and early May 2010. In Singapore, the national level of respiratory illnesses has been steadily increasing since early April 2010 and now exceeds the epidemic threshold; 37 per cent of sentinel respiratory specimens tested positive for influenza during the most recent tests. In Thailand, the proportion of sentinel outpatients with influenza-like illnesses and sentinel inpatients with pneumonia testing positive for pandemic influenza virus infection has declined significantly since peaking during late March 2010.
In Europe, overall influenza activity remained low with very low level co-circulation of pandemic and seasonal influenza type B viruses. The overall proportion of sentinel respiratory samples testing positive for influenza remained stable at about 5.3 per cent; and the total number of sentinel influenza B virus detections continued to exceed that of influenza A viruses, primarily due to low level seasonal influenza type B virus circulation in the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan.
We often report in ITIJ about norovirus outbreaks causing misery on cruise ships, but until now little had been heard about the illness striking air passengers. However, following a case where a flight from Boston to Los Angeles had to be diverted to Chicago shortly after take off due to the high number of people with vomiting and diarrhoea symptoms, it seems the virus is taking to the skies. All the ill passengers in the above case were members of a tour company’s bus tour, who were returning home to California. A subsequent investigation by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found six confirmed and nine probably cases of norovirus infection among the passengers who had been part of the tour group, as well as one confirmed and six probably cases of infection in non-tour group airline passengers. The investigators found that sitting in an aisle seat or near a tour group member were strong risk factors for becoming ill, suggested that transmission occurred either directly or through contamination of armrests, tray tables or seat controls.
Dr Aron Hall, a CDC epidemiologist involved in the investigation, told Reuters: “This is the first time passenger-to-passenger transmission of norovirus has been documented on an airplane.” Hall added that only three other norovirus outbreaks on planes had ever been documented.
It was noted by Dr John Holmes of the University of Otago in New Zealand, who wrote a paper on the topic, that aircraft bathrooms hinder good hand washing techniques and also make them difficult to clean following an episode of illness.
Researchers in one of the teams at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have developed a vaccine that could immunise travellers and locals against Chikungunya.
At the end of March, more than 213 countries and overseas territories or communities worldwide had reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 16,713 deaths
The UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said it is aware of nine cases of Legionnaires’ disease in people who have travelled to Corfu since August. The HPA is currently working with colleagues in the UK, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Greek Public Health authorities to collect and share further information regarding a possible source or sources.
UK-based healthcare provider MediCare International has looked at the top types of claims it has received over the past two years in order to reveal which conditions are most prevalent. The company said that the results of its research not only reflect the most common complaints, but the fact that being in a new and different environment can also have an impact on one’s health.
Thailand’s Department of Disease Control has released its report into the deaths of five tourists and a local guide that occurred in January and February this year, but the findings show that while exposure to pesticides probably killed the women, the exact cause of the deaths may never be known 
The UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) has released new figures that show the number of UK travellers found to be suffering from dengue fever has more than doubled in the past year. 
As the rainy season continues, so does the progress of cholera in Nigeria, where 352 people have died in a three-month period. 
As of 2nd May, more than 214 countries and overseas territories or communities worldwide have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 18,001 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) is actively monitoring the progress of the pandemic through frequent consultations with WHO Regional Offices and Member States, and through the monitoring of multiple sources of information.
We often report in ITIJ about norovirus outbreaks causing misery on cruise ships, but until now little had been heard about the illness striking air passengers. However, following a case where a flight from Boston to Los Angeles had to be diverted to Chicago shortly after take off due to the high number of people with vomiting and diarrhoea symptoms, it seems the virus is taking to the skies. All the ill passengers in the above case were members of a tour company’s bus tour, who were returning home to California. A subsequent investigation by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found six confirmed and nine probably cases of norovirus infection among the passengers who had been part of the tour group, as well as one confirmed and six probably cases of infection in non-tour group airline passengers. The investigators found that sitting in an aisle seat or near a tour group member were strong risk factors for becoming ill, suggested that transmission occurred either directly or through contamination of armrests, tray tables or seat controls.
Researchers in one of the teams at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have developed a vaccine that could immunise travellers and locals against Chikungunya.