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 Health & Beauty | February 2006 
Sun, Sand, and Sickness
 Carly Weeks - CanWest News
| | A new poll has revealed that more Canadians are worried about losing their luggage while on vacation than contracting a disease. |
Vicky Franzoi was looking forward to a well-deserved tropical holiday. She drank, ate and soaked up the sun at an all-inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where she and her husband vacationed on their annual winter trip.
"It was supposed to be relaxing," Franzoi said. "Life can be very stressful."
What Franzoi didn't know was sometime during her sunshine getaway, she contracted Hepatitis A. It made her sick for months and changed her life forever.
Up to 6,000 Canadians are diagnosed with Hepatitis A and B each year two diseases that are easily preventable by readily-available vaccines before heading down south on vacation.
But more Canadians are worried about losing their luggage while on vacation than contracting a disease, a new poll reveals. Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of Canadians don't realize that activities such as swimming, getting a manicure and eating salad at a five-star restaurant while on holiday in the Caribbean or Mexico puts them at risk for hepatitis.
"People are getting sick, number one, because they're not well-prepared before they go," said Dr. Jay Keystone, who works at Toronto General Hospitals tropical disease unit. "They don't think about their health. They'll buy insurance to make sure they don't lose their luggage, but they don't want to pay any money to go to a travel clinic."
While 65 per cent of survey respondents said they're concerned about getting a disease while on holiday, 70 per cent said they're more preoccupied with worries over losing their passport or luggage, according to a poll conducted by Leger Marketing Jan. 12 to 18. The Internet survey questioned 1,555 adult Canadians and the results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Many people don't think they need to be vaccinated before they go on holiday, Keystone said. That may be because many don't realize there are countless ways to get infected with diseases like hepatitis and malaria while visiting other countries.
It's not as simple as drinking bottled water and refusing ice cubes in a tropical drink, Keystone said.
"We know that 97 per cent of travellers make a food or beverage error. They drink the water when you should be drinking commercially bottled water," Keystone said. "They eat salads, they eat buffets that have been sitting out for hours at a time and therefore may be contaminated."
Franzoi said she wished she had done things differently and been vaccinated before her Mexican voyage. It would have saved her months of illness and absences from work.
Soon after she arrived back in Canada, Franzoi noticed she was unusually tired. She saw a doctor who believed Franzoi was suffering from mononucleosis and prescribed antibiotics.
But Franzoi knew something was seriously wrong a few days later when her body became itchy and her scleras - commonly referred to as the whites of the eyes - started turning yellow.
"I became really jaundiced, my eyes were so bright yellow it was like the sun. My body was jaundiced," she said.
She returned to the doctor and was soon diagnosed with Hepatitis A. Franzoi's illness lasted for half a year and she was forced to stay home from work for three months.
The emotional effects of suffering from this disease took an extreme toll on Franzoi as well.
"You get really depressed," she said. "Your life changes because you just don't want to be around people. You become isolated E It takes away from your every day life, for sure."
It's been about five years and Franzoi said she's fully recovered. But she still doesn't know exactly how she contracted Hepatitis A. Now, she's urging others to protect themselves because diseases are easily spread and can be contracted in numerous ways.
"I only should think people should learn from my experience," Franzoi said. "We don't all know what kind of diseases are out there. People should get vaccinated." |
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