Earlier this year, in September, a Wyoming resident was diagnosed with the plague. The woman had contracted it from her cat. To be specific, she was diagnosed with pneumonic plague, which is a form of the plague that is rare. Even in this day and age, it is very uncommon, (but not impossible) for the plague to be around. According to the CDC, during the years 2018-2019, the United States saw only one case each year.
Rabies is a zoonotic illness – meaning that it is spread from animals to humans. If scratched or bitten by an animal that is carrying rabies, emergency medical attention is always needed to prevent any effects from the bite. The most common animals that carry the rabies virus are bats, coyotes, raccoons, skunks and foxes. Other animals can also be affected by the virus as well.
Without prompt treatment, rabies is a fatal disease. Once bitten, if treatment isn’t sought for a potential rabies infection, once symptoms begin to set in, it is too late to do anything else other than making the person affected comfortable. The infection sets itself in your central nervous system, eventually making its way to the brain and causing death. Symptoms of rabies include:
Typhoid fever is a life-threatening illness caused by the bacteria Salmonella serotype Typhi. It’s a common traveller’s related disease, with around 21 million reported cases of typhoid globally each year. Typhoid is a highly infectious bacterial infection that is usually spread through the ingestion of food or water that has been contaminated by feces. Once infected, typhoid can affect multiple organs within the body, and without proper treatment, can lead to complications and even death. Currently it’s estimated that up to 1 in 5 people will die if their typhoid fever is left untreated. Luckily, there are preventative methods and treatments plans available to both help prevent and treat typhoid.
By the time a person realizes they have rabies or starts showing symptoms, it’s typically too late. That’s a scary thought, especially since rabies is a disease known to change the behavior of those infected.
There are so many diseases in the world, many of which we have vaccines, treatments, and other preventative measures for. With medicine and healthcare being as advanced as it is, one might think there would be better treatments for rabies. But the truth of the matter is that unless a person knows they were bitten by an infected animal, there is no way for them to know if they have rabies, especially since symptoms don’t start to show until it is too late.
Since 2020, COVID-19 numbers have been surging, with multiple variants, that have killed thousands of people. It can be hard to navigate the world of travelling, especially with a pandemic surging around the world and here at home. Sometimes, we have to travel for work, or we need to be somewhere for reasons unknown to us.
Travel can be something that may seem scary with the pandemic around, but it doesn’t have to be. There are precautions you can take, and procedures to follow if you do happen to test positive while you are abroad. What happens if you catch COVID-19 while travelling? We’ll answer that below.
Motion sickness is something that affects many people, and it can make travelling quite uncomfortable. But what does motion sickness actually feel like? It can differ from person to person, but some of the most common symptoms include:
There is something so intriguing about staying on a cruise ship. You have the beautiful sights, the wonderful sounds, delicious food, and much more. The gentle rocking of the boat as it floats along the water towards your next destination may be relaxing. On the other hand, it could also make you feel seasick, which is never fun when you are on a vacation. But, there are tips and tricks on where to stay on a cruise ship that can help you to avoid seasickness altogether.
As the climate changes, many new and re-emerging diseases are affecting populations around the world.
Increasing temperatures are encouraging disease carrying insects such as mosquitoes and ticks to roam beyond their normal habitats. As these insects travel further, they are carrying diseases such as dengue, malaria, lyme and tick-borne encephalitis to new places. It is thought that warming temperature could increase breeding, make food more abundant, and increase activity among these biting insects.
Health threats like HIV, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis kill millions of people across the globe every year. Yet in wealthy countries like the US, these diseases are afterthoughts. In underdeveloped countries like parts of Africa, India and Southeast Asia these diseases remain large threats. Combined, these diseases kill more than 5 million people per year, the equivalent of a full 747 airplane crashing every 44 minutes. With numbers like this, why aren’t we more concerned about these diseases?
One journalist believes that these diseases are not epidemics anymore because wealthy countries have defeated them, leaving poor underdeveloped countries to fend for themselves. According to Stat news, once a pandemic stops being an acute threat to life in high-income countries, the urgency drops, the focus shifts, and resource flows dwindle. This is what’s happened with earlier pandemics, such as HIV and AIDS, and tuberculosis: Decisive action was taken to contain the threat to life in rich countries, but it was then allowed to linger in poorer, more vulnerable countries, killing millions.
Vaccines are our greatest defense against deadly and potentially deadly diseases. As a child, you were likely vaccinated against various diseases. But, if you do not have your immunization records, or are unsure of your vaccination status, a titer test might be something you should consider.
