Preventing Measles while Traveling Abroad

Most people love to spend their summer holidays with family in an exotic destination. However, traveler’s diseases such as measles are still common in many parts of the world. During your visit, you may expose to people having the disease and measles can lead to serious health complications. To avoid turning your fun and exciting trip into remorse, make sure you get your travel vaccine in NY a few weeks before boarding.

Common places for measles

The outbreaks of measles are still common in some parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. Every year, nearly 20 million people suffer from measles throughout the world.

How is measles spread?

Measles is one of the highly contagious diseases, which easily spreads to unvaccinated people. If unvaccinated people are exposed to a measle infected perfect, almost 90% of them will get measles.
Measles is an airborne disease, which spreads when an infected person coughs, breathes, or sneezes. So, that means you will get an infection if you live in the same room or place as a measle infected person. And, even after an infected person leaves the room, measles virus stays in the air for up to 2 hours.

Protection against measles

The best way to get oneself protected against measles is the MMR - measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. The children get two doses the first dose at 12 through 15 months old and the second dose at 4 through 6 years old.
You should get your travel shots in NY before leaving for your trip. Doctors recommend children of 12 months age or older should get two doses at least with a difference of 28 days. On the other hand, adolescents and adults who never had measles or been vaccinated should get two doses with 28 days of difference. And, for infants 6 to 11 months, they should get an early dose of MMR vaccine.

Signs and symptoms

While you’re abroad and once you’re back, look for symptoms of measles. Generally, measles begins with fever, running nose, cough, sore throat, and red eyes. These symptoms become visible nearly 7 to 14 days after the infection. Maybe three to five days after these symptoms, you will get red or reddish-brown rashes. Measles can also lead to other serious health complications, including pneumonia or encephalitis, and in severe cases death.

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Top Tips for a Healthier Travel

Are you planning to travel abroad in a few months? Besides planning your trip, you should also get your travel vaccine a few weeks before boarding. You don’t want to ruin your holidays with an injury or illness. Nowadays, you can easily find travel vaccines in New York City, but make sure you choose the best and reliable clinic of your area. The following are some of the pre-trip tips for healthier travel.

 

 Know the health risk of your destination - The first thing you need to do while planning a trip abroad is to determine the health recommendations of your destination from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most of the travel clinics in NYC offer services such as prevention and vaccination of altitude sickness, mosquito-borne illnesses,  and traveler’s diarrhea.

Get vaccines and medications - The best way to have healthy travel while heading abroad is to get vaccinated to protect yourself and your family from illness and diseases, even for Europe, the Caribbean, and Mexico. However, typhoid, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, cholera, yellow fever, and traveler’s diarrhea are some of the common illnesses that you need vaccination for if traveling to South America or Asia. Regardless of the place you’re traveling to, you should get the proper vaccination done before boarding.

Seek the advice of your health care provider - If you have any ongoing health problem, schedule an appointment with your primary health care provider to discuss how to manage your condition while traveling. Changes such as environment, diet, and sleep patterns can worsen your health condition. So, do follow your doctor’s advice while abroad.

Take enough of prescription - Make sure you carry enough of your prescriptions that can stay till the last day of your trip and an extra for a week in case of an emergency or travel delays.

Check your health coverage abroad -  Before taking off, you need to find out whether your health insurance covers your health expenses while you’re away from the country. Even if you’re healthy, it is a great move to check your health coverage in advance.

Stock your travel health kit - No matter where you’re going, basic health essential such as bandages, sanitizer, moleskin, sunscreen, creams to prevent blisters, pain medicine, antibacterial ointment, antihistamines, and pepto bismol can offer a great help during your travel.

If you’re planning to travel overseas, make sure you get your travel shots as well as other traveling essentials before boarding. 

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