Traveler's guide to avoiding infectious diseases

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Infectious diseases and travelers

Malaria

Overview

Traveler's guide to avoiding infectious diseases

Alternative Names:

Infectious diseases and travelers; Avoiding infectious diseases when traveling
Information:

Different areas of the world have different diseases and different prevalence rates of disease. Factors that contribute to these differences are climate (tropical, subtropical, temperate, arid, and so forth), native insects, parasites and animals, population density, and a myriad of other factors.

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Travelers to foreign countries (any country not of the traveler's origin) may encounter diseases to which they have no natural immunity, to which they are not exposed in their own country, and which are likely to have a significant impact on their health.

Below is a listing of countries and the diseases you may encounter there. You may want to read about the individual diseases that are in areas you are planning to visit.

Northern Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Tunisia)

insect-borne diseases (uncommon here, but may be encountered): leishmaniasis, malaria, relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever, typhus, sandfly fever, West Nile fever
water and food-borne diseases: dysentery (caused by many different organisms), cholera, Hepatitis A, typhoid fever, giardiasis, brucellosis, echinococcoisis, intestinal worms (helminthic infections), polio
rabies

Nile delta

filariasis, schistosomiasis

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

plague

Sub-Saharan Africa

insect-borne diseases (very common here): malaria, filariasis, onchocerciasis (river blindness), cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis), relapsing fever, typhus, plague, yellow fever, hemorrhagic fevers (such as Dengue hemorrhagic fever, etc.)
water- and food-borne diseases: intestinal worms (helminthic infection), dysentery, giardiasis, typhoid fever, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis E, cholera, dracunculiasis, echinococcosis, polio
other: Hepatitis B, trachoma, Lassa fever, Ebola fever, Margburg fever, meningococcal meningitis

Southern Africa

insect-borne diseases: malaria, plague, relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever, tick-bite fever, typhus
water- and food-borne diseases: amebiasis, typhoid fever
other: Hepatitis B, rabies

Botswana, Namibia

sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis), schistosomiasis

South Africa, Swaziland

schistosomiasis

North America

insect-borne: Lyme disease, and rare cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia
water- and food-borne diseases: rare outbreaks of cryptosporidium, rare giardiasis
other: extremely rare case of rabies