November 19 marks World Toilet Day. At face value, you may wonder what this has to do with travel health vaccinations but the answer to that is ‘everything’ when it comes to one of the ‘big’ travel vaccinations, cholera.
World Toilet Day is an initiative from the United Nations, which has made ‘safe toilets for all’ one of the targets of its Sustainable Development Goal 6. At present, 3.5 billion people live without safely managed sanitation and 419m practise open defecation.
In many countries around the world to which a British traveller may venture, for work, leisure or volunteering reasons, toilet systems simply do not exist or do not function as required. This situation is the breeding ground from which cholera can be unleashed.
Cholera and its world impacts
Even between August and October 2024, there were 83,982 new cases of cholera reported and 900 new deaths. In 2023, there were outbreaks in 18 different countries.
And things are getting worse, due to the impacts of climate change and events such as flooding, population growth and accelerated urbanisation, not to mention and wars and humanitarian crises.
The fragility of many healthcare systems simply cannot stand up to such events. This is why the global risk of cholera is assessed as ‘very high’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Any country that suffers a major impact – such as Turkey and its earthquake of February 2023 – is immediately at risk of a cholera epidemic, particularly when it shares borders with countries like Syria, where the disease is already present.
Other areas of the world over which alarm bells are ringing include the Philippines, which WHO says exercises inadequate monitoring of drinking water quality.
What is cholera?
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It can kill anyone who contracts it, within just a few hours.
It is much associated with poorer living conditions, which is why aid workers and volunteers can be particularly susceptible, if travelling to assist those in need in other countries.
Severe cases of cholera can require very rapid treatment and the intake of fluids intravenously and yet many of the locations in which cholera would be contracted would not have the medical infrastructure to provide such treatment. This virulent disease can take hold, once symptoms have manifested themselves, after what is usually somewhere between 12 hours and five days.
The need for cholera vaccination
All of this makes vaccination against cholera imperative, in countries or zones in which it is a risk. WHO has three pre-qualified oral cholera vaccines that it recognises as being able to protect against this terrible disease. Two doses of the vaccine are required for complete protection, with a two-week pause between first and second dose. Once fully vaccinated, the protection should last three years.
With so many countries having poor sanitation and infrastructures, even places that you might not associate with cholera, such as several idyllic Pacific islands, can carry a risk.
How to plan your cholera vaccination requirements
To know whether or not your trip, holiday or volunteering or humanitarian aid work will require you to be vaccinated against cholera, you need to pinpoint everything that will happen overseas and have the full scenario analysed. This is exactly where Pinpoint Travel Insurance and its Travel Health Brief service comes in, as it can take every factor relating to the trip, its timing and duration, the sort of activities being undertaken, the exact location (down to just a few square metres) and the individual traveller and their health conditions, and produce a report in minutes.
This Travel Health Brief will assess whether a cholera vaccination is required and will also flag up any possible medical complications, according to medications that have already been prescribed.
Armed with this precise analytical report, the traveller, volunteer or charity worker, can head to a travel clinic, whose details will also be provided, and have any vaccinations that are necessary, including cholera.
The very fact we need to have a World Toilet Day should serve as a reminder of the poor sanitation in many of the countries to which we might wish to venture, to bag a view, see a wonder, tread glorious beaches or assist others who require help. Take note of its aims, reflect on its missions and remember to protect yourself, so that you do not become a victim of poor sanitation and water supply control.
Order your Travel Health Brief here.
Main photo credit: Photo by Antoine Plüss on Unsplash