On World Health Day, the WHO (World Health Organization), the World Health Organization, commemorates its founding in 1948. For many years, a theme has been set for this purpose that the WHO believes is particularly important and relevant to all countries of the world. In 2007, the focus is on protection against infectious diseases – also in view of the consequences of global warming and the resulting natural disasters.
Active protection against infections
WHO is concerned about protection against infections on a global scale, and the governments of individual countries must ensure that this is implemented in their respective territories. This ranges from stockpiling vaccines and national disaster preparedness plans to education campaigns and mandatory reporting of certain infectious diseases, overseen by public health departments.
Active protection against infection for a trip to tropical climes begins at home with preparations and includes travel planning that takes into account, for example, the different types of vacation, such as hotel vacations or trekking vacations. Accordingly, hygiene measures such as water sterilization tablets and diarrhea preparations, mosquito nets and complete insect protection through clothing and skin protection products must also be planned. Some travel medicine services therefore offer a fee-based individual travel consultation that takes into account each component of the planned trip.
Update vaccination protection
In principle, the vaccination status must be checked before every trip, especially before long-distance travel. This includes checking the
- Standard vaccinations according to the German vaccination calendar, including.
- Tetanus,
- Diphtheria,
- Hepatitis A,
- Polio, measles and
- Typhoid fever.
The classic travel vaccinations also include.
- Yellow fever,
- Hepatitis B,
- Rabies,
- Purulent meningitis (meningococcal meningitis),
- TBE (early summer meningoencephalitis) and.
- Japanese encephalitis.
Over 60-year-olds need to think about pneumococcal and flu vaccine protection. The timely review of vaccination protection is all the more important because last-minute trips, especially to tropical and subtropical areas, there is little time to build up an active vaccination protection. If possible, the vaccination program should be completed 10 -14 days before the start of the trip. Contact persons for travel vaccinations are the state health offices, physicians and pharmacists.
It is advisable to look specifically for practices and pharmacies that have undergone further training in travel medicine and are up to date in this area. Most vaccinations can also be given by a general practitioner, but yellow fever vaccinations with a live vaccine may only be given by licensed yellow fever vaccination centers.
