Useful Medical Information For Good Health

Travel Health: Useful Medical Information For Good Health Before Your Departure, During Your Trip And After Your Return.

Submitted by: Eddy De Vos

The diseases most commonly seen in travellers are diarrhoea, malaria (if you travel in a malaria-infested area), accidents (when travelling by car or swimming), wound infections and sexually transmitted diseases.

- Diarrhoea is caused by contaminated food and drinking-water. You must therefore be careful if your are travelling in poor hygiene conditions.

- Malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, so the first thing to do is to protect yourself against these mosquitoes.

- In order to prevent accidents during travelling, it is wise to apply the same precautions as those taken at home. In addition, it is very important that all wounds should be thoroughly disinfected in order to avoid infection.

· TRAVELLER’S DIARRHOEA

Many intestinal infections are attributable to infections picked up by mouth or hands. With a little care most of these illnesses can be prevented. Hepatitis A, typhoid fever, polio and cholera still occur in countries with poor hygiene, but these diseases are easily prevented.

However, the chance is rather large that you will still contract a light and/or nondangerous form of traveller's diarrhoea. Traveller's diarrhoea almost always spontaneously clears up after a few days, but can nevertheless be irritating. And a risk to your overall and travel health.

In the first place measures must be taken against dehydration. Likewise, treatment of the symptoms must be considered in order to reduce the number of bowel movements and relieve other symptoms such as fever, vomiting and stomach cramps. Sometimes a more serious form of diarrhoea occurs, for which specific treatment with antibiotics is indicated or where hospitalisation or fluid replacement appears unavoidable.

It takes only a few basic preventive measures to make your trip a success : Total prevention of traveller's diarrhoea is impossible and it is obvious that preventive measures can seldom be strictly followed at all times. But following preventive measures do significantly reduce the risk of contracting serious diarrhoea: In order to maintain good travel health wash your hands before eating and avoid (if possible):

- raw vegetables and fruits that you have not peeled yourself
- uncooked or unpasteurized dairy products
- insufficiently cooked sea foods (+ Hepatitis A !) and meat
- “local meals” which do not smell fresh
- ice-cream bought from street merchants (industrial ice straight from the deep-freeze is probably safe).

Cooked meals should be served hot. The place where you eat is also important. A meal taken from a stall presents a greater risk than a meal taken in a restaurant. Avoid restaurants where there are a lot of insects.
Avoid tap water and ice-cubes. Bottled water and soft drinks are safe. Watch out for bottle caps that have already been used.

It is very important to disinfect drinking-water on adventure trips. Total sterilisation of drinking water is impossible. The following measures considerably reduce the contamination risk and safeguard your travel health:

- Boiling the water is very effective.
- A good alternative is chemical disinfection with chlorine drops (e.g. Hadex®, Drinkwell chloor®; available in sport shops specialized in outdoor activities) or chlorine tablets (Certisil Combina®; chloramine tablets; available at the pharmacy). Their effect can be improved by first filtering unclear water. Silver salts (Micropur®, Certisil Argento®) are not very suitable to disinfect water, but they keep disinfected water germ-free for a long time.

For adventurous travellers conscious to travel health it is best to buy a portable water-filter. The use of antibiotics in order to prevent diarrhoea before it occurs can be dangerous + Also the use of other preventive medications is not recommended.

. How to treat diarrhoea?

It is extremely important to consume sufficient liquid and salt in order to prevent dehydration. You can do this by taking salt solutions, but tea with lemon, broth, soft drinks and fruit juice, supplemented with salt crackers are tastier. Commercial salt products are available on the market (ORS-solution).

Taking an anti-diarrhoea preparation (loperamide, e.g. Imodium®) can greatly reduce the number of bowel movements, with a considerable reduction of the complaints as a result. Imodium® may only be used by adults and older children and only for treating ordinary watery diarrhoea: 1 capsule after every loose movement up to a maximum of 4 per day.

Antibiotics are indicated :

1. If blood, mucus or pus are present in the stools.
2. If after 24 to 48 hours, there is no sign of improvement and the diarrhoea is accompanied by fever (above 38.5 C) or severe abdominal cramps, or if there are more than six stools per 24 hours and especially when these also occur at night.
3. Or if because of travel circumstances a quicker solution is absolutely desirable . Appropriate antibiotics are only to be used on doctor’s prescription

· SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES

Casual sexual contacts tend to be higher while on holiday abroad. Sexually transmitted diseases, particularly AIDS, form therefore an important risk for travellers. Quite often unintentional and unsafe sexual contact takes place under alcohol influence. Prevention while on holiday abroad is no different from the precautions you take at home. Adequate use of a condom, preferably bought at home, is absolutely essential. Only a water-soluble lubricant should be used, but it only offers a partial guarantee (e.g. KY gel). Vaccination against hepatitis B is advised. Always consult your doctor if you think you are at risk, even when there are no symptoms.

· MALARIA (swamp fever, malaria)

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite (called Plasmodium) transmitted by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. There are four different types of which Malaria falciparum is the most dangerous and the most widespread. The incubation period – the time between an infecting bite and the appearance of the disease – varies from ten days to four weeks (rarely several months).

The symptoms include attacks of fever, but can initially be quite similar to influenza. If adequate treatment is not started in time, an attack may sometimes result in death within a few days.

. Where does malaria occur?

Malaria only occurs in those areas in which Anopheles mosquitoes are present : in the tropics and in a large number of subtropical areas. From a height of 1.500 to 2.500 m onwards, depending on temperature and climate, Anopheles mosquitoes are either rare or non-existent.

In most big cities there is little or no risk at all of infection, except in Africa where a real risk exists.

Risk also exists in the suburbs of the big cities in Asia (e.g. in India). In a number of areas the risk varies according to the season.

. How can malaria be prevented?

It is very important for travel health to avoid mosquito bites : the Anopheles mosquito only bites between dusk and dawn, is rather small and hardly makes any noise.

- In the evening wear light-coloured clothing which covers your arms and legs as much as possible. Apply repellent cream with a DEET basis (20 to 50%, for children and pregnant women preferably 20 to 30%) to the uncovered parts of your body. Repeat this every four to six hours (it will not protect you all night).

Non containing DEET repellents were less examined; Autan-Active. and Mosegor. are however excellent safe products.

- Sleep in rooms that leave no access to mosquitoes, (mosquito nets on the sills, electrically-warmed anti-mosquito plates, air-conditioning) or sleep under a mosquito net impregnated with permethrine or deltamethrine hung over the bed with the edges tucked under the mattress.

If these measures are carried out correctly, the risk of malaria will be reduced by 80 to 90% and travel health is maintained

. The intake of pills as prevention

There is no drug efficient enough to prevent malaria 100%, which means that quite often a combination of measures is preferable. Also the drugs used have changed over the years. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of drugs should be considered against the risk of malaria infection. These risks are dependent on the visited country, and on the region, the season, the duration of your stay and the kind of trip.

Some people might be troubled by the side effects while taking antimalarial drugs. These are usually mild and are not always a reason to stop taking the pills. Sometimes it may be necessary to change to another type of medication due to intestinal problems, allergic reactions or other intolerance symptoms.

Therefore it is the doctor who can best decide for each individual which drug to use. This explains why individuals from the same group may end up taking different drugs.

Finally, as no drug is 100% effective in preventing malaria, it is important that if an attack of fever occurs in the first three months after your return from the tropics, a malaria infection should be considered as a possibility despite the correct use of the drug prescribed.

However, it is reassuring to know that malaria, provided it is recognised in time, is easy to treat without any danger of recurrent attacks. The belief that "once malaria always malaria" is totally untrue.

You can find even more travel health tips in the next pages:

DISEASES FOR WHICH VACCINATIONS ARE AVAILABLE: http://www.spain-holidays-advisor.com/vaccination.html

MORE TRAVEL HEALTH TIPS : http://www.spain-holidays-advisor.com/more-travel-tips.html

CAUTION: The information provided here should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or for the treatment of any medical condition. A licensed physician should be consulted for any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies.

About the Author: Eddy De Vos is the owner of http://www.spain-holidays-advisor.com/, a website about travel and Spain. It contains usefull tips for your next trip, be it to Spain or anywhere else in the world. Of course if you are planning a trip to Spain there is no better place to start than there

Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=3914&ca=Travel

Esl Activities

Author: Les

Movement in a room creates changing social dynamics.  And language is a social activity.  Also, when students move they become more aware of their environment.  This is a sort of heightened sensitivity. It increases their perceptive skills.  The input is channeled straight to the brain.

When we move, we breathe deeper. We get lots more oxygen. This helps us think better.  But really, moving is just plain more fun.  When we get up to do an ESL  activity (as opposed to sitting down), I can see many more smiles.

ESL activities are supposed to help students learn English so they can use it.  Reading and writing can help with this.  But I feel that listening and speaking are the master skills that underlie them.

If we make activities that encourage listening and speaking, our students will learn better.  And deeper.

So I have four ingredients in my ESL activities.

Repeating

You need to memorize a lot to learn a language. And repetition is essential.  Ask yourself: Do you have activities that help the students repeat the target language?  So they can hear it many times, and say it many times?

Listening

Unfortunately, it is easy to start listening and then give up soon because, well, simply, we don\'t understand it.  And often students don\'t have to listen. They can guess very well.  We have to change that by making activities with question and answer.  A bit of randomness is good.  So that students need to listen to the question, or perhaps another student’s prior answer to make a good response.

Listening to English passages that have reductions can be fun.  The students know the words, but can’t understand them due to the reductions.  They really pick up their attention to these listening activities.

Speaking

Let the students interact with each other, and exchange information.  It doesn\'t always have to be deep and meaningful if the target language is challenging.  Flashcards give good ‘seeds’ for the students to start talking about things.

A Sample

In my classes we have a ball learning English.  Literally.  I have a ball.  Everyone stands up (movement).  We throw the ball and catch it (more movement).  We ask questions to each other (speaking, listening).  We keep doing this (repeating).  The set of questions is limited.  For instance, general routine questions.  What time do you..?   Where do you...? And so on. 

There is one important thing to remember.  Throwing balls is fun but not for too long.  It makes repeating more fun but not for too long.  Perhaps 4 to 8 minutes of fun is good. 

Have fun!

(find the original article here along with a sample listening activity, a story with phrasal verbs used in context!)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/languages-articles/esl-activities-1848916.html

About the Author

Les Perras is an English teacher in Ikoma, Japan. He teaches there in his own school, a franchise of Smith\'s School of English. In addition, he is the author of the website English Listening World .

4 Stages of Web Design

Author: Preeminence Web Design

Stage 1 - Style over substance

The first stage is to design a site that the chief executive officer, venture capitalists, and ad agencies like to see. There are all types of 'bells and whistles' in this design. An entire site might be a Flash animated site. Or there might be some beautiful JavaScript mouse over effects or drop-down menus in the design. It\'s always a pretty design, but the message is clear - style over substance.

Stage 2 - Designing for online visibility

In Stage 2, the reality of an ineffective web design begins to hit, usually around 3-6 months after the initial launch. A site will typically get rejected by many of the major directories, not be indexed by the major search engines, or not get the traffic or sales that were projected based on the various types of marketing strategies used. Typically, that\'s when companies decide that they will try to hire a professional online marketer to promote the site. Doorway page companies, in some way, shape or form, rear their ugly heads. Unfortunately, many web site owners fall for a doorway page company\'s pitch because the beautifully designed site couldn\'t possibly be the problem with low site traffic. Yahoo might have rejected a site, or the site might have been listed in Yahoo and the company cannot understand why they have no description next to their company name. But in no way would many ad agencies or doorway page companies want to tell potential clients the truth -- they simply did not design and write an effective web site -- because it would mean losing thousands of pounds in business

Important Tips for an Effective Web Design

Author: Pennsylvania Web Design

Websites provide a virtual image of a business or individual to its prospective clients. So there\'s a need for visually appealing websites with quality content to gain an edge over your competitors. An effective web design implies something unique yet special in its approach. A website provides an interactive gateway for communication between client and company. A website should fit any business like a well-tailored dress. It should reflect your persona in addition to instilling confidence in the potential buyer that yours is a solid, stable and reliable business.

The more visitors that see your website, the better. To get optimum leads for your business, there are some of the important tips that should keep in mind for an efficient web design.

Identify the Goal of Your Website:

Every website is created with a specific purpose. First of all decide the purpose of your website. Then create a strategic web design to achieve desired website goals.

Information organization:

A website should present all the information in an organized and sophisticated way. If your web page is obvious and self-explanatory it will make visitors more comfortable. An effective web design should have clear and understandable navigation. A visitor should feel at ease while using your website.

User friendly Web Design:

A good web design should be graphically appealing to entice prospective clients to stay longer and browse your information. Good navigation should be provided so that customer can access any information on your website without confusion. Important areas should be highlighted to attract visitor\'s attention.

Cohesive Research:

A detailed report should be prepared on daily/weekly basis about the number of visitors, their time duration on your web pages and number of clicks made to important links. By analyzing these reports, you can determine if changes to your site need to be implemented.

A qualitative Analysis:

A good web design should undergo a cross browser compatibility check to ensure that it supports all types of browsers by displaying information in a user friendly way.

A good web design company can create the entire website for you, starting with an effective web design. You just need to provide them with details about your business specifications and expectations, then they will do the rest for you in an efficient manner which is both time as well as cost effective. A good web Design Company should possess state of the art technology with a proven track record in this field.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/important-tips-for-an-effective-web-design-5459569.html

About the Author

Looking for a good Pennsylvania Web Design Company to get your website done? Visit PA web design, a web design Pennsylvania company now!

The Importance of Quality Web Design

Author: Pennsylvania Web Design

Let\'s take a look at a few different areas where a PA Web Design team can focus their efforts on increasing the bottom line for business and getting a large presence online.

Web Design That Works

Did you know that you only have a few seconds to engage a user who is browsing through the internet? With billions of web sites out there, how are you going to stop someone when they are at your web site, get them engage and interested? The majority of people will visit a web site and if they don\'t see something they like, they are gone within a few seconds.

Through the use of a PA Web Design team, the need for creating web site designs that grab the attention of the user, by focusing on call to action wording, colors and placement on your web sites is key. If you simply threw together a web site for your business, without having an end goal or the average user in mind, you may be doing more harm than good with your web site.

Creative Magma Tips for Web Design

Author: dallas web design

Web Page
Any text file with the extension \'.html\' is termed as a web page. It may contain information in the form of text and/or graphics. A web page may contain hyperlinks, commonly known as \'links\'.

Basic Steps

The first step in learning to design a web page is to know the basics of HTML. HTML is the abbreviated form of \'HyperText Markup Language\'. It is quite a simple language to learn and once you get used to formatting in HTML, designing a web page becomes child\'s play. It is possible to insert text as well as graphics into a web page with the help of HTML. The \'notepad\' available on your personal computer comes in handy for learning HTML. After you finish designing a web page, it can be viewed with the help of a software known as the web browser. Along with HTML, newer tools like the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), are used to add value to the content presented on the web page. The layout of the web page is designed by using CSS. Making use of appropriate colors enhances the overall look of the web page. The HTML color codes can also be used in designing.

Domain Name Registration

Registering the domain name gives a singular identity to the website.

The Web Design Process Easy To Understand

Author: Preeminence Web Design

The best thing that can be done for web design is to leave it to the designers! That is what a lot of folks particularly internet marketers like me believe about the web design process.

When you visit a large web design company the chances are they outsource the work to a freelance website designer just like I do in the majority of cases. You may have a current web site design project, you may be updating an existing site, or just interested in learning new skills. If so then this article will help you with your web design process decision making.

When your field of expertise includes nothing related to computers or the Internet, defining what you need in a web design can feel burdensome. However, I was tired of running behind companies, waiting for their updates on my website design. You must first develop a strategic plan and design your web site accordingly. Prior to designing your web site, you must have a clear understanding as to exactly what it takes to succeed. But these goals are nearly impossible to achieve without learning the rules that govern Web site design. Look for books on web page and web design. Use the web - there are thousands of sites that have tutorials and explanations of every aspect of web site design and implementation.