Expert advice: Staying healthy in China

Name: Budget Travel LLC
Price range: $

By Amy Chen

October 3, 2012

If you’re lucky enough to be attending the Beijing Olympics, now’s the time to think about health precautions—so that you don’t come home with more than just souvenirs. Follow these tips I picked up from Richard Wenzel, M.D., president of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Q: Are there any vaccinations travelers should get?

A: If you haven’t gotten a tetanus booster in more than 10 years, it’s time. It’s also wise to get vaccines for typhoid and Hepatitis A and B. (Shots should be taken care of at least two to three weeks before leaving. Get your first Hepatitis B shot at least one month in advance.) Tourists who plan to stay in the cities can skip the vaccine for Japanese encephalitis. Unless you’re visiting rural China before or after the Olympics, you won’t need malaria pills, either.

Q: What are some tips that you can offer regarding food safety?

A: Boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it. Avoid salads, raw fish, and ice. No dairy products—including ice cream—unless you know they’re pasteurized. And wash your hands before you eat.

Q: Since it’ll be very hot in August, do you have any advice on staying hydrated?

A: People need to know how hot and humid it’s going to be. Make a point to stop every two hours and hydrate. For me, it’s going to be carbonated water and sodas. With regular bottled water, there have been some reports of contamination. I’m not picking on China. They have also been some outbreaks in Europe.

Q: What can you tell us about traveler’s diarrhea?

A: About 50 percent of travelers to tropical countries (including China) will get traveler’s diarrhea. Half of those people will feel bad for three to five days. Others will be in bed for at least a day. Some people take Pepto-Bismol to prevent traveler’s diarrhea, but it’s not that useful once you have diarrhea. Imodium helps after you have it. For something stronger, go to a travel clinic in the U.S., and get some antibiotics to carry in case you experience diarrhea. These days, Azithromycin is more effective than Ciprofloxacin since strains of E. coli and shigella are increasingly resistant. Remember that you’ll need enough of the antibiotic to treat yourself for at least three days. You should be ecstatic if you don’t have to use the drug. And don’t forget: all medications should be packed in your carry-on.

Q: When do you need to seek medical attention for traveler’s diarrhea?

A: In terms of gastrointestinal infections, if you don’t have a fever, you’re usually in pretty good shape. It doesn’t mean you feel great. If you have really bad abdominal pain or blood, you need to see a physician right away. Seek out university hospitals, which usually have bilingual staff. You can also find the names and addresses of English-speaking physicians based in China by stopping at a travel clinic in the U.S. before you depart. The International Society of Travel Medicine has a directory of travel clinics.

When I visited Hong Kong a few years ago, I ended up in the emergency room—twice. It turns out I had managed to contract dysentery. The culprit? I suspect it was a bowl of congee that had spoiled.

Don’t be too afraid to try the food, though. A recent CDC study found that most travelers treated in China actually suffered from asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory illnesses more often than diarrhea.

Dr. Phyllis Kozarsky, a CDC travel health expert, advises those with chronic respiratory problems to visit a doctor before leaving and to take extra supplies of any medicines or inhalers they use for flare-ups. Travelers who plan on jogging or exercising outdoors in Beijing will likely want to get an early start to avoid traffic-related pollution. And good old-fashioned hand washing can help prevent the spread of respiratory infections. You can find the CDC’s comprehensive guide to staying healthy and safe in China here.

Are you bound for Beijing? (40 Comments)

Beijing 2008 Olympics: An Insider’s Guide

Plan Your Next Getaway

Keep reading

Inspiration

George Washington's boyhood home uncovered

Archeologists in Virginia made a timely announcement yesterday that they have located the remains of George Washington's boyhood home on a plot of land called Ferry Farm. The evidence reveals an eight-room, one-and-a-half story clapboard house, upscale for its day, that stood along the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg. Two outbuildings were also recovered: the kitchen and the slave quarters. No telltale stumps or other evidence were found of the (almost certainly made-up) cherry tree that Washington chopped down and could not tell a lie about. However, many mid-18th-century artifacts—including pieces of a Wedgwood tea set, wig curlers, and a pipe bowl with the Masonic crest—were found among the foundation, chimney, and cellars. Most of the house's wood was gone, apparently either used as fuel or reused for other buildings. Washington's parents and their six children moved to the farm in 1738, when George was 6. Augustine, George's father, died five years later, but Mary, his mother, continued to live on the farm until 1772, when she moved into town. Nearly a century later, the farm's land was used as a staging ground for the Union's troops during the Civil War—a trench of several hundred feet remains from those days, and the Union may have used the farmhouse as a temporary headquarters. The house's remains are part of George Washington's Boyhood Home at Ferry Farm, 113-acre National Historic Site. A recreation of the house as it stood in the 1740s is in the works.

Prepare for flight cutbacks

You can expect fewer passengers in front of you at domestic airports come fall. USA Today estimates that about a third of the country's busiest airports will be losing 10 percent of flights. Biggies include Honolulu (down 23.7 percent—this includes flights among the Hawaiian islands), Oakland (down 21.8 percent), and Kansas City (down 15.7 percent). A graphic illustrates the cuts state by state.

Be aware: Electronics can be seized at customs

Are you traveling internationally with time-sensitive—or just sensitive—information? It’s a good idea to email or send a copy on ahead of you. For several years U.S. customs officials have been inspecting the contents of electronic devices such as computers, digital cameras, and phones at the border, in some cases keeping them for several weeks before returning them to their owner. Journalist Bill Hogan, for instance, had an old laptop of his taken for two weeks when he landed in Washington, D.C., after a trip to Germany. "It's not an inspection. It's a seizure," he told the L.A. Times. "What do they do with it? I assume they just copy everything." In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled that at border crossings, the government does not require a search warrant for random searches of luggage. There is more protection against a strip search, which requires "probable suspicion," than there is for examining the contents of a laptop. Federal hearings are underway that may result in changing the way Customs goes about its job, but in the meantime it's worth keeping in mind that anything electronic could conceivably be searched—and seized for a time—when re-entering the country. PREVIOUSLY Laptop bags that will pass the TSA test [Editor's note: We've corrected a spelling error above.]

Big Sur's in danger

A dangerous wildfire near Big Sur, California, prompted authorities to evacuate the town on Wednesday. A previous, more limited evacuation order was expanded to include all of Big Sur—closing businesses and shuttering houses from Andrew Molera State Park to Limekiln State Park along Pacific Highway 1. Anyone who has ever driven through Big Sur, or stopped to hike its trails, knows that it's a national treasure. I've been three times in the past few years, and I'm still not done with the incredible sunsets at Nepenthe restaurant, the cool redwood-shaded hikes of its parks, or the routinely breathtaking views as you round corner after corner on the drive to and from San Francisco. We covered lodging in the town—and its environs—in our recent magazine cover story Big Sur: Into the Redwoods. Also check out our road trip up Pacific Highway 1, from 2006. Here's hoping incomparable Big Sur is back, and soon.

Real Deals