Thousands of Brits risk deadly disease when running for the sun

Today officially marks the first day of Autumn and following the hottest summer ever, we know what’s coming: Fog and frost, cloud and rain, with the sunny long days changing to ever longer and darker nights. Clearly, it is time to be thinking about booking a winter sun holiday. But in our rush to escape the British weather, are we forgetting something before we jet off?

In 2018 there were 71.7 million visits overseas by UK residents, however according to new research released today by PharmaDoctor, who support the UK’s largest Travel Clinic network, when asked about a recent trip abroad only 28% of those who travelled outside the EU had a personalised travel health risk-assessment before their trip. Shockingly over half (55%) did not seek any travel health advice at all.

These are worrying findings as winter breaks tend to be more far flung than those taken during the summer. Many of those surveyed could not identify some of the 15 most common travel related diseases. Despite advice from Public Health England for families to ensure they have their MMR vaccine before travelling abroad, nearly a third (31%) of those surveyed were not aware of the health risk of measles and quarter are not aware of rabies, when only last November a Briton died due to contracting the disease whilst on a trip to Morocco.

Aston spoke to Graham Thoms, CEO at PharmaDoctor and James Tibbs, multi award winning pharamcist to discuss how to best protect yourself whilst travelling.