Many students heading abroad are much more focused on the adventure that awaits them than they are about protecting their safety.  This is quite understandable.  Student travelers from college campuses often feel invulnerable and may even find some risk taking appealing.  Indeed, college life for many students encourages experimentation and reaching beyond comfortable boundaries.

While extending one’s comfort zone is essential for personal growth, there must be a reasonable balance so that the new comfort zone does not become a danger zone.

Which of the following unfortunate events are most likely to occur to a student traveling to the developing world?

(a)  Yellow fever

(b)  Malaria

(c)  Accidental injury

(d)  Rabies

(e)  Hepatitis B

Yes, disease is a serious risk.  Travel medicine experts advise various travel vaccinations for students who are bound for Africa, South America, India, China, the Middle East, eastern Europe and other locations to protect them from infectious diseases.  Students should consult with a travel medicine expert a few months before departure so that they can discuss their itineraries and travel plans so that the physician can advise which vaccinations are advised.   But, disease is not the major threat that students face.

The biggest threat facing students are not from invisible bacteria, viruses and parasites.  Accidents and injuries abroad are much more common than vaccine-preventable illnesses.  This means that travel vaccinations – while essential – cannot protect students against the greater risks that they face in a foreign country.  Moreover, students who are properly vaccinated may enjoy false security that they are ‘protected’, and may not use prudent judgment when they should.  Wearing a seatbelt or a bicycle helmet will not protect against reckless behavior.

Accidents, injuries, property loss, scams and legal difficulties can all be prevented with reasonable dosages of common sense and good judgment.  Many times during a foreign excursion, a student will face a choice of whether to proceed ahead or to pause and reassess the situation.  The consequences of a bad decision can be very unforgiving abroad in a foreign culture and a continent away from one’s familiar support network.  Imagine being robbed, hospitalized, swindled, arrested or made pregnant during a semester abroad.  Student travelers have suffered all of these outcomes, which could have been avoided.  If a meal, an individual, a piece of equipment, a taxicab, a tour guide, an intimate relationship or any other opportunity seems suspect, then students need to put their gears in reverse and accelerate.   Be cautious about placing trust in folks whose warm and friendly manner may be camouflaging unscrupulous designs.

When students are packing their backpacks in the morning, they should pack caution and good judgment also.  These will protect as much as any medicine or vaccine will.

Scientists are hard at work trying to develop new vaccines against serious diseases.  There is no vaccine, however, against bad judgment and irresponsible behavior.  Students will have to protect themselves the old fashioned way using common sense.

Travel physicians offer students much more than travel vaccinations.  They provide a wealth of practical safety advice to keep students out of harm’s way.  Consider this to be ‘Travel Safety 101’, a required prerequisite before any semester abroad.

To Learn more about travel immunizations and travel safety, visit Travel Clinics of America today.

Author: Michael Kirsch, M.D.