How To Avoid Getting Ill On Holiday
This video shows you reasons why we get ill on holiday and how to avoid doing so in future. With advice from Dr Ron Behrens, a consultant in Travel medicine, and Penny Beck, a superintendent pharmacist, VideoJug user Marshall Benjamin shows you how to avoid getting ill on holiday.
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Step 1:
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The Statistics
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Now, with the weather here in the U.K.not being particularly reliable, it’s no surprise that millions of us will be heading abroad on holiday this year, and it’s meant to be a time when we should kick back and relax. But new stats from Tesco pharmacy show that 6 out of 10 of us will actually fall ill whilst away. And despite that, half of us won’t bother to pack any first aid items! So why are we so slack?
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Step 2:
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The Reasoning
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Well, since the 60s we’ve had this growth in packaged tourism. With that, we’ve had this fall in travel prices and air travel, and that has led to this massive increase. It’s a 15 percent increase each year in people traveling abroad, with around 66 million visits by UK residents last year; about 8 million to the tropics and about 15 to 20 million to Europe and the Mediterranean. And this has led to people visiting places where they’ve never been before, new environments, new diet, new behavior patterns. And this has changed a lot of what the average British resorts or the local traveler has exposed to and suffers from.
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Step 3:
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The Problems
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The research showed that big health issues for Brits can be diarrhoea, headaches, sunburn and heat rash. And also, don’t forget to take your insect repellent, because insect bites can be a big problem.
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Step 4:
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Mosquito Bites
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Mosquito bites - big problem. They are common, frequent, and thus are one of the biggest complaints. Take your repellent, and use it frequently. Apply it every 2-4 hours. Take it with you in the evening. Further afield, malaria and other insect-borne disease can kill you. Apply repellents, take your tablets. And of course, there are rarer problems carried by insects such as the bodfly. It breeds in the skin, hatches into a fruit fly, and wiggles around, which is of course very unpleasant. Use a repellent and you won’t catch it.
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Step 5:
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First Aid Kit
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So you’re almost ready to go on holiday, but what should you pack in your first aid kit?
Our Pharmacist would recommend that you think about putting in some painkillers for headaches, some tablets for tummy troubles, and also perhaps some rehydration therapy sachets. You need to think about creams to prevent insect bites, and also some cream to prevent the itching once you’ve been bitten. And don’t forget the sun-cream. You can get some really good advice from any pharmacy, if you pop along, and also there’s a free Holiday Health leaflet available from Tesco pharmacies that will answer all your holiday queries.
So the advice is, if you are going abroad, or if you’re just toughing out the great British summer, then be prepared, and don’t be one of the sick 60 percent!
