Continental Shift

A vitally important step in preparing for your overseas move, especially if you are going to the developing world where disease risk is higher and medical care can be more difficult to organise, is to ensure your health is protected.

Protecting your health covers a range of areas:

• General health check-ups
• Vaccinations
• First aid
• Medical kits
• Other medical/health supplies
• Health insurance
• Safe sex.

These are preparations you can make before you go. Then, as soon as you arrive, you should familiarise yourself with emergency care phone numbers and the route to the nearest hospital with an emergency department (if you have the luxury; we had neither phone nor quick access to emergency care). You should also find a new doctor and dentist. This may take some time, but it is better to have the doctor in place than have to look for one when you need medical care.

General health check-up
You already have a general health check-up once a year, don’t you?

If not, this is an ideal time to start. The last thing you want to do is arrive in your brand new country, possibly far from quality care, and realise you have the symptoms of a life-affecting chronic disease like diabetes.

Your doctor knows what to look for, but in general will be checking:

• Weight
• Blood pressure
• Pulse and heart rate
• Eyesight
• Bone density (if at risk of osteoporosis)
• Cholesterol
• Current medication and any side-effects.

Depending on the results, the doctor may give you lifestyle advice on diet and exercise, may prescribe new medication, or may suggest you visit a specialist. You should definitely tell them you are moving overseas as this may affect their treatment or preventative regime (e.g they may move from waiting to see how something develops with diet and exercise to treating it with medication straight away).

The doctor may also conduct blood and urine tests for drugs or other conditions depending on any symptoms or unusual feelings or reactions you report (do not keep quiet about these – let them find anything that’s wrong while you are still where it can easily be diagnosed and treated), where you are going and the requirements of your employer.

It is advisable to also have a pap smear and mammogram, or prostate check, depending on your plumbing, before you go. The result will most likely be clear and will not affect your plans, but will give you peace of mind.

Try to get this out of the way early in the process. The stress of the move can influence some of the results of your tests. I speak from experience, after this conversation with my doctor before I left:
“Your blood pressure’s high.”
“I’m moving to Libya next week.”
“… It probably counts as normal, then.”

You should make a similar precautionary visit to your dentist, for a general check and clean, and have any dental work needed done well before you leave.

Depending where you are going, you might want to ask your dentist for advice on a routine dental care regime to protect your teeth while you are away from quality dental care (this will most likely involve some combination of regular brushing and flossing, which we all should be doing anyway, shouldn’t we?).

Vaccinations
It is advisable to have a full set of vaccinations completed before travel to your new country; some countries may in fact demand specific vaccinations before issue of visa or residency, depending on where you are coming from or going to.

Even if it is not required by bureaucracy, for your own health and safety, you should ensure you are vaccinated. Do not just risk it – some of these diseases can infect you permanently and seriously affect the quality of your life, whereas others, like rabies, are almost invariably fatal. I repeat, do not risk skipping out on your vaccinations.

The full range of vaccinations available are for the following diseases:

• Yellow Fever (may be a legal requirement depending on which country you are entering or arriving from; must be administered by a WHO-approved vaccination centre)
• Cholera (oral vaccination)
• Tetanus
• Poliomyelitis
• Measles, Mumps and Rubella
• Varicella (Chicken Pox)
• Meningococcal (legally required for Haj religious pilgrims)
• Pneumococcal
• Typhoid
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Japanese Encephalitis
• Influenza
• Rabies
• Tuberculosis

It is unlikely in the extreme that your chosen country will need vaccinations against every single one of these diseases (my sympathies are with you, if it does…). When you attend a travel vaccination specialist, they will be able to check which vaccinations you will need, and administer them accordingly.

Admittedly, some, like rubella, they will slip in just because they like to see the adult population immunised against such diseases, but don’t complain – these are useful to have (adult measles, for example, is a severe illness which it’s best to be protected against no matter where you’re living).

Ensure you allow enough time for this process – some vaccinations, for example those for Hepatitis A and B, require administration over a number of weeks or even months.

Again, the importance of vaccinations cannot be underestimated. They are never as painful as you think they are going to be, and are far, far less painful than the alternative.

First aid
Like vaccinations, a first aid training course is a highly useful precaution to take (even if you’re not going to live in a country where medical care is patchy or far away) and undertaking such training before you go overseas is highly recommended.

First aid training is widely available from providers such as the Red Cross or St John Ambulance. They offer flexible training sessions, on weekends or part-time over weekday evenings, or even online depending on the course you choose, so you have no real excuse to avoid it.

The training courses come in a variety of options. For example, St John Ambulance Australia offers the following courses:

• Resuscitation, life support and first aid for children and infants
• Basic resuscitation and life support
• Senior first aid (accredited)
• Workplace first aid (including legislation and record keeping)
• Remote area first aid
• Occupational first aid
• Offshore and industrial emergency response training
• Advanced courses (require earlier courses as pre-requisites)
• Refresher courses.

Your choice of training course will depend on what you have previously done, pre-existing medical conditions you know you may have to deal with, the country you are going to, your work environment and responsibilities at work, and the age of your children (if any). If unsure, discuss it with your employer and/or training provider.

Some of the courses are assessed and give you a certificate of attainment at the end; others are shorter and cheaper and are aimed at giving you the skills without the assessment. You might prefer to do the version that gives you accreditation, as it can be a useful skill to add to your CV.

That’s it for this week; I’ll continue on this topic next time. See past topics and what’s coming up next at the table of contents. Subscribe or check back for more content soon.

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