Summer Health - Introduction

As the days grow warmer and longer, our thoughts turn to outside activities and holidays. But not everyone looks forward to summer and trips abroad. Sun burn, allergies, and illnesses picked up in foreign countries all cause real health problems. They may do more than just spoil your holiday.

Travel health

Holiday makers are now traveling further afield, which increases their chances of picking up new illnesses.

Decreasing costs and better accessibility mean holiday-makers are travelling further afield, often to developing regions where they may contract traveller's diarrhoea (Delhi belly) or worse. This increased wanderlust also increases the demand on the NHS to contend with sick travelers once they return. In 2003, visits overseas by UK residents rose by over 3 per cent to an all-time high of 61.5 million.

Thankfully, medical research has made great progress in protecting us against many of the infectious diseases that made such adventurous travelling dangerous in the past. Progress continues against long-term human foes, such as malaria, as well as against relative newcomers like SARS.
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Allergies

As many as one in five Britons suffer from hay fever and around one in two hundred are allergic to insect stings. But there is now a vast range of medications to alleviate symptoms. Most are available without prescription. Indeed, in 2003, the demand for over-the-counter hay fever remedies grew 13.5% from the previous year. Research using animals continues to provide insights into the causes of allergic reactions and to suggest new approaches to treating these conditions.
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Sun safety

Over exposure to the sun causes premature aging of the skin and increases the risk of developing skin cancer. Each year in the UK around 7000 malignant melanomas - the most serious form of skin cancer - are diagnosed. A greater understanding of how sunlight causes damage is helping in the development of new sun protection products. Other researchers are studying skin cancer growth to develop better treatments.
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