A gap year can be exciting, and some preparation can help prevent a health emergency. Four travellers share their tales of adventure and tips for staying safe.
Rebecca Atkinson, 27, travelled to India in her gap year to work in rural development
“I was based in a very rural village in Tamil Nadu after travelling all round India. Most of my information came from guidebooks, but my local pharmacist told me what inoculations and tablets I needed. I had to go for TB and hepatitis shots and started taking anti-malaria tablets one month before I arrived in India.
"A friend told me to take rehydrating salts with me, which turned out to be really useful advice because I did get food poisoning. Everyone knows not to drink the tap water, but it’s easy to forget that fruit and salads are washed in it. One guy I met nearly went blind after washing his contact lenses in the water and getting an eye infection.”
Dave Wilson, 24, spent three months trekking round India with an art project
"I didn’t find out I was going to India until two weeks beforehand so, in medical terms, I wasn’t really prepared. Luckily the nurse at my local GP surgery gave me the jabs I needed. I had been backpacking before, so I'd had some inoculations already.
"I knew the rules about avoiding the local water and uncooked food, but I still just took the basics: plasters, antiseptic and a mosquito net. A few days after arriving, I got the infamous Delhi belly and was bedridden for a while, and even four months after I got back I was still suffering. I was told I had giardia, which is a bacterial parasite from contaminated food and water.”
William Carter, 58, spent eight weeks in Nepal working in orphanages
“One of the girls I was working with got bitten by a monkey while visiting a temple, and had to have her rabies shot afterwards, so it’s definitely worth getting all your jabs first.
"I found it really useful to take hand cleaners and disinfectants with me to places, especially rural areas. I had a bit of room in my suitcase so I brought a small electric kettle as well, which was great when you wanted to drink a bit of water or even have a wash.”
George Munson, 30, spent three months in Chile working with Raleigh International
“We were living in tents and cooking on open fires, trekking long distances and working with sharp implements, all in very challenging environments with extremes of cold, wet and (occasionally) heat.
"Each team had a doctor but any serious injuries would have meant radioing for a helicopter and waiting a day or more for help. In our group a volunteer managed to get trench foot from having poor-quality boots, borderline pneumonia from forgetting his sleeping bag and snow blindness after losing his sunglasses, all in the space of a week.
"Tragically, another friend cut his own thumb off with a knife and had to be helicoptered out. All of this could have been avoided if they had taken a bit more care. My advice is, if you’re travelling to remote areas, take a first aid course and plenty of medical supplies.”
