Tuesday, August 19, 2008

On the Road? – Get Your Shots

Easily lured by gastronomic temptations while travelling in exotic locales? If so, then you’re at risk of catching hepatitis A. The disease, which is transmitted in food and water infected by fecal material, is the most frequent infection in travelers that can be prevented by immunization.

Three per 1,000 travellers get it; those who eat and drink under unhygienic conditions stand a 20 out of 1,000 chance. The majority of hepatitis A cases in industrialized nations are from vacationers who bring it home.

Even those who stay in luxury hotels in developing nations are at risk, according to a study by the Institute of Social and Preventative Medicine of the University of Zurich. The autors, writing in the Journal of the American medical Association, say the new inactivated” hepatitis A vaccines, like Havrix, are the way to go – they protect 95% of recepients and last for ten years or more. That’s far better than the widely used immune globulin, which lasts three to five months.

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