Making life a holiday with interesting vacation and adventure ideas.

The Malaria Awareness Campaign, organised by GlaxoSmithKline Travel Health, has brought to the attention of British travellers, the importance of antimalarial medication when visiting at-risk destinations and the risk of buying medication when they are abroad. Purchases could turn out to be fake malaria drugs that put lives at risk. Dr George Kassianos of the Malaria Guidelines Committee said, "With the most deadly strain of malaria on the increase, accounting for nearly 75% of all reported cases in UK travellers, it has never been more important to purchase legitimate medication."

The first line of defence in preventing malaria is to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes. However, this alone is not enough and if antimalarial medication is recommended it must be taken before, during and after travel.

Incredibly, between 1500 and 2000 people per year return to the UK with malaria and on average nine people will die from this preventable disease. It's essential that travellers seek advice six weeks before their departure date and follow the guidance they are given.

Here is a really useful link to malaria advice for travellers, including interactive maps.

Labels: 2008, health, malaria, travel

Next month, American Daren Wendell begins an 18,000-mile, hike around the globe.

He begins his seven year walk along the Appalachian Trail, then travels across the Atlantic to trek through Europe. His adventure will then take him to the Great Wall of China, Siberia and Alaska. The hike is more than a backpacker's dream and aims to draw attention to and raise money for the charity 'Blood Water Mission', which is empowering Africans to build healthier communities through sustainable clean blood and clean water solutions.

Follow Daren's adventures on his website.

Labels: adventure, charity, health, Hiking, World

The World Health Organization provides free advice for anyone planning travel; enabling travellers to be informed about the potential hazards they may encounter in the countries they are travelling to and to learn how to minimize any risk to their health. They point out that forward planning, appropriate preventive measures and careful precautions can substantially reduce the risks of adverse health consequences.

While the medical profession and travel industry provide a great deal of help and advice, the WHO remind traveller's that they should take responsibility to ask for information, to understand the risks involved, and to take the necessary precautions for the journey. Travel light but travel with knowledge.

Labels: 2007, health, travel, WHO

October 24, 2007, is Take Back Your Time Day; although it is essentially a U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens the health of their people, communities and environment, we believe that it is relevant to all societies influenced by American business culture.

Joe Robinson, one of the founders of the 'Take Back Your Time' organisation, says, "This is not about slacking, not about being lazy, vacations are as important to your health as checking your cholesterol or getting exercise. They're the antidote to runaway stress. Research shows that an annual vacation can cut the risk of death from heart disease in women by half and in men by about a third. Vacations can also cure burnout, the last stage of chronic stress, but it takes two weeks for the process of re-gathering crashed emotional resources to occur."

The motto of this blog is 'Making life a holiday with interesting vacation and adventure ideas'. The concept being to enjoy a lifestyle whereby, like the surfers, you live the dream. If surfing is not your scene but you love to paint, carry a sketchbook with you, and use it. If you love to run and you have to work for a living, run to work. But most of all, make sure that you get quality relaxation time. It is said that an hour a day can keep the doctor away.

Business also gets a big dividend from vacations. "Three week vacations have proven to be a boost to productivity and profits at enlightened American firms with that policy. Performance goes up when people come back from a vacation," said Robinson. "In the knowledge economy, the source of true productivity is a refreshed and energized mind."

Labels: 2007, health, Take Back Your Time, vacations

Another Mashup that might interest the more paranoid adventurer. This one maps disease outbreaks around the world with data from organizations such as the International Society for Infectious Diseases, the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

This is certainly a site that should carry a health warning for hypochondriacs but it is great for travel professionals who want to impress their colleagues by dropping a comment during social chat; "Four cases of human anthrax were found recently in Mongolia" or "Hantavirus infections have increased considerably in Germany since the beginning of the year".

The site is a mine of information about all sorts of viruses and bacterium that most of us don't get to hear about; look up 'humans infected with Cowpox after contact with cats'. However, thankfully most of us will never come across these nasties on our travels. No, I didn't mean cats! Happy traveling.

Labels: health, map, warning, World

During the 2008 Olympics, avoid drinking tap water outside the Olympic Village. That is the message in a recent article by Stephen Wade, of Associated Press. It seems that few of the 15 million residents of Beijing drink water from the tap, which is known to be contaminated, relying instead on bottled water.

It reminds me of a trip to Moscow some years back when a similar warning was issued to us. The warning pointed out that it was easy to inadvertently drink the tap water by putting ice in drinks or even eating washed salad. The upside was that we got to clean our teeth using Vodka!

Labels: Beijing, health, Olympic Games, safety, warning, water