INMYVIEW... TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN HOLIDAY HEALTH

DOCTORS have a duty to urge patients to research the health hazards they may face when travelling abroad.

Time and again, I have been astonished to see sick patients arriving back from overseas surprised that, just because they were able to buy a ticket to travel somewhere, it was not a safe place to visit in terms of health.

I remember one patient returning home with malaria after a trip abroad — he’d developed a complication of the disease from which he nearly died.

He had taken no precautions to protect himself, even though he’d travelled to an area where malaria was known to be a risk.

Recently, I read about some tourists who became ill with gastroenteritis in Mexico and are now taking legal action against their travel agent for not advising them of public health warnings.

But travellers to Mexico should be aware of the threat of Montezuma’s revenge — the colloquial term for traveller’s diarrhoea.

The tourists were stricken by cyclosporiasis, a protozoan infective agent spread by food contaminated with sewage — a condition seen in many Third World countries.

Health protection is a personal responsibility. Anyone who travels must make themselves aware of the inherent dangers: do the research, seek advice and decide whether to accept the inevitable risks.

The travel agent that sells the tickets may not feel it their duty to spoon-feed the customer.