Who Is at Risk to Get Traveler’s Diarrhea?

Travelers are at risk of diarrhea, when they move from a high hygiene area to low hygiene areas. For western travelers, high risk areas are: Africa, South Asia, Central and South America, Caribbean and the Pacific islands.

Prevention of Traveler’s Diarrhea

1. Vaccination, Medications

Before a travel, children should be vaccinated against rotavirus. Information about common infections in planned destinations should be obtained. Preventive taking of antibiotics in general is not recommended because of their possible side effects, but if someone needs to be protected as much as possible, antibiotics, prescribed by a doctor, may be started 2-3 days before a travel; this prevents diarrhea in most cases.

continue reading Traveler’s Diarrhea – Foods That Cause It, Prevention, Treatment

Diarrhea may be contagious or not, depending on the cause.

Infectious diarrhea due to bacterial or parasitic food poisoning or due to rotavirus infection can be transmitted by stool-to-mouth (fecal-oral) route (with hands, water, food, toys and other objects contaminated with the stool). Additionally, viral diarrhea can be contracted by droplet infection, that is by inhaling droplets of nasal secretions or saliva of an infected and sneezing or coughing patient (usually small child).

Diarrhea is not likely to be transmitted by inhaling the odor of diarrheal stool. Diarrhea due to bacterium Clostridium dificcile or yeast Candida albicans overgrowth is not likely contracted by a healthy person, but it can be contracted by someone with lowered immunity (a person with AIDS, or a patient after antibiotic treatment, during or after chemotherapy, and so on).

Diarrhea in most of other disorders (IBS, food allergies, liver, gallbladder, pancreas disease, celiac disease, lactose intolerance, Crohn’s disease) is not likely contagious, unless the affected person develops a subsequent infection.

It is often not known why a certain person has a diarrhea, so it should be assumed that diarrhea is always contagious, even if it is not.

Prevention of Diarrhea

1. Hygiene

• Washing hands after every contact with the stool (toilet, soil, animals)
• Cleaning surfaces, contaminated with stool, soil, chemicals
• Keeping small children out from daily care centers, if they have diarrhea, or if many other children have it
  
  continue reading Is Diarrhea Contagious? How Can Be Diarrhea Prevented?