Family enjoying summer vacations in resort

Traveller's diarrhoea: tips to prevent and treat it

By Cristiano Antonino On Jul 3, 2022

Traveller’s diarrhoea is a frequent disorder when travelling abroad, especially when reaching destinations with lower hygiene standards than in the country of origin

The disorder causes liquid diarrhoeal discharges accompanied by an unpleasant odour and sometimes fatigue and vomiting.

Traveller’s diarrhoea lasts from 3 to 5 days unless it becomes chronic, and generally appears early in the stay

The ways of contagion are many: from ingesting contaminated food to using infected linen, towels and crockery.

To reduce the risk, prevention is fundamental: boosting the immune defences and respecting certain rules of food and personal hygiene.

Water, for example, is at a very high risk of contamination and should therefore be purified with special disinfectants, food should not be eaten raw, and hands should be washed thoroughly using disinfectant gels.

Causes of traveller’s diarrhoea

Traveller’s diarrhoea is caused by contact with micro-organisms of various types, but the most commonly involved strain is the bacterium Escherichia coli, implicated in 50% of cases.

Contagion usually occurs through ingestion of contaminated food and liquids or through contact with inadequately cleaned cloths, towels and dishes.

The immune defences of travellers coming from countries with a high level of hygiene find themselves displaced in the face of these unknown micro-organisms and are therefore unable to organise themselves in time to protect the organism.

But there are other factors that contribute to the onset of diarrhoea: from stress due to jet-lag to climate changes, from altitude to sudden changes in eating habits.

Symptoms of traveller’s diarrhoea

If diarrhoeal discharges are watery and particularly violent in the first few days, they decrease in intensity and frequency over time.

In some cases they are accompanied by abdominal cramps, vomiting, a sense of tiredness, meteorism, a sensation of sulphur in the mouth, and a more or less high fever.

The symptoms, if treated promptly, do not last longer than a week, unless the disorder becomes chronic.

Remedies

In the case of traveller’s diarrhoea, the first advice is to rehydrate by drinking plenty of water: the disorder, in fact, involves considerable losses of fluid, which must be replenished immediately so as not to compromise organic functions.

But this is not enough; it is necessary to supplement the water with mineral salts to restore the hydrosaline balance and to take symbiotics based on prebiotic fibre and live milk enzymes to restore the intestinal microflora.