When travelling to foreign countries, especially places that are undeveloped, it is important for you to know exactly what immunisations you might need. Although your travel agent will generally tell you of vacines you will need there are many different illnesses you can pick up from various countries some of these diseases you need to be aware of when travelling includes:

• Cholera – This is a disease that is water borne and some of the symptoms include chronic diarrhoea and often extremely bad muscle cramps in the stomach. There are certain people that are most susceptible to the disease and this is determined by their blood type for example those with O type blood are most likely to contract the disease where as those with blood type AB are the most resilient. In the past you would receive an immunisation by injection however this didn't prove very effective, they have now developed an oral vaccine that is given over 2 doses.
• Preventing Diphtheria – There are many countries that still suffer with diphtheria so it's important to ensure you are protected against it before travelling to any countries that may be effected by it. Symptoms of the disease include fever, sore throat and fatigue, however, the disease affects children differently and so symptoms in a child’s case include high fever, chills and vomiting. As the disease progresses it usually causes swelling of the infected person’s throat. It is caught through direct contact with an infected person or breathing in an infected person’s air directly.
• Hepatitis A Immunisations – This is normally contracted through contaminated food or water and because it is also present in faeces it is important to be more careful in an environment that is poorly sanitised such as a dirty public toilet. So as well as your vaccination you should be sure you clean your hands throughly after using the toilet and before eating food. In places where the risk of catching the disease is higher you should ensure you use bottled water where ever possible even for things such as brushing your teeth. Symptoms include nausea, stomach cramps, dark urine and jaundice; this is because it affects the liver so a good way of determining whether some one has the disease is by checking their eyes for a yellow tinge.
• Typhoid Vaccines – The Typhoid vaccination for all places you could be vaccinating apart from Northern Europe, Australia and New Zealand, North America. It is passed through infected water this could be because the water is contaminated with faeces or has been in contact with an infected person such as them washing their hands after using the toilet. Symptoms include extremely high temperature, pains in the stomach and headaches this all accompanied usually by feeling weak.