TRAVEL HEALTH UPDATE

Many ethnic Australians travel overseas to visit family members in countries that are considered to be medium to high risk areas. It may be timely to remind them of the facts about hepatitis A and B.

• Hepatitis A is the most common vaccine-preventable disease to threaten international travellers – and the virus likes five-star hotels as much as we do.
• Hepatitis A is contracted most commonly through contaminated food and water. Food washed in contaminated water and even foods that have been frozen and then thawed before they are eaten, can harbour the virus.
• About 10% of hepatitis A sufferers end up in hospital.

• Hepatitis B is 100 times more infectious than HIV. There are about six million HIV carriers in the world compared to 359 million people with hepatitis B (ie one in 20 people).
• Hepatitis B is also much more resilient. It can survive for up to one week in dried blood at room temperature, whereas HIV only lives for 24 hours.
• Hepatitis B is transmitted by unprotected sex or by blood. It can be transmitted by exchange of body fluids as a result of sharing razors and toothbrushes which contain traces of blood from an infected person, participating in body contact sports if people have open cuts, holiday accidents requiring medical attention since low standards of clinical hygiene and unnaturalised equipment are common in developing countries, tattooing and body piercing, having unprotected sex, wearing jewellery (such as pierced earrings) which penetrates the skin, allowing a mixture of blood and body fluids.
• People with hepatitis B can have mild to severe symptoms and the virus can also lead to liver failure, liver cancer and death.
• Out of an average plane load of 300 tourists coming back from a high endemicity area, one will be newly infected with the hepatitis B virus, while 17 will have been previously infected.²
• All travellers to areas where hepatitis B is endemic (widespread) are at risk of contracting the disease.
• Hepatitis B is endemic in many parts of world including Africa, most of Asia and the Pacific, parts of Central and Eastern Europe, in parts of the Caribbean and South and Central America and Southern Mediterranean.
• Hepatitis B infection can be prevented by vaccination.

Patiens who are at risk

- Elderly travellers who are at an increased risk of needing emergency care.

• Avoid undercooked meat and seafood, raw vegetables and salads
• Boil or purify drinking water if in doubt
• Ensure cooked food is served piping hot
• Cover exposed skin, sleep under pyrethrin-impregnated mosquito nets and use insect repellent in known malaria areas
• Practice safe sex
• Wear seatbelts
• Avoid being bitten by mammals as rabies can be transmitted
• Avoid swimming in rivers and lakes where Bilharzia infection occurs

1. Taylor Nelson Soffres, A quantitative research survey with travellers, 2000
2. Internet site http://www.libertynet.org.80/-hep-b
3. Maladies infectiousness, Diagnostic et prevention, Supplement II, Recommendations pour la vaccination contra l’hepatise B Office federal de la sante pulque, Switzerland, December 1997.

Who is THAG ?

The group’s members include Dr. Tilman Ruff, Dr. Tony Gherardin, Dr. Bob Kass and Professor Nick Zwar. THAG can supply information on travel tips, disease areas and prevention methods