Current Travel Health News
Current Travel Health News
Take precautions against dengue fever when travelling abroad
Dengue fever is now endemic in more than 100 countries in Africa, the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. This includes various popular tourist destinations for Hong Kong people including the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Travellers planning to travel in these areas should take precautions against the disease. Travellers returning from areas where dengue fever is prevalent should seek medical advice as soon as possible if they feel unwell and provide travel details to their doctors.
For more information on dengue fever, including the latest situation in neighbouring and overseas countries and areas, please visit the Centre for Health Protection’s thematic webpage at https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/features/38847.html
Democratic Republic of the Congo: African Trypanosomiasis
10 February 2022
[Editor Note: African trypanosomiasis is caused by the bite of an infective tsetse fly, Glossina, which carries the protozoa, Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiene or T. b. gambiense. T. b. rhodesiene causes a virulent, rapidly progressive disease and is found in east Africa. T. b. gambiense causes a more chronic disease and is found mainly in west and central Africa. Both forms are fatal without treatment.
Symptoms include a painful sore at the bite site, fever, intense headache, insomnia, painless enlarged lymph nodes, anaemia, local oedema and rash. Later, there is body wasting, somnolence and neurological signs.
Travellers to affected areas should use an insect repellent, cover exposed parts of the body, and avoid wearing the colour blue, which attracts tsetse flies.]
9 February 2022
Singapore: Dengue Fever [Update]
9 February 2022
8 February 2022