Medical advices for traveling
Several years experience have shown that intestinal infections and diarrhoe are introduced to Polarstern by travelling through tropical and subtropical countries to the destination.
Some health and hygiene advices are given here. The journey to the ship is often stressing and exhausting caused by large crowds, long waiting hours, sudden changes of diet and climate and the transit to other time zones. This results in weakening of the resilience.
These factors alone may lead to insomnia, nausea and digestive problems. Additionally, risk of infection by food and drinks exists in subtropical and tropical countries. They are the common sources of infection. Diseases transmitted like this are diarrhoe, cholera, dysentery, worm diseases, typhus, paratyphus, salmonellioses and poliomyelitis. These diseases are very unpleasant and may severly disturb the expedition. Furthermore, the diseases easily spread onboard due to the constricted room and become difficult to control.
The most important advice is: Be careful what you eat!
Raw, uncook food eventhough it may seem fresh and delicious requires extreme caution.
Avoid salad, uncooked vegetable and fruit with thin skin
Raw or not sufficiently cooked meat, fish, molluscs and crustaceans should be considered as potential sources of infection.
Cook dishes that were kept at room temperature (15 - 40°C) for several hours have a high risk of infection.
Icecream is a further source of infection.
Caution with ice in cold drinks.
Tea and coffee are usually without risk as well as drinks in bottles still sealed.
Follow these precautions not only during private journeys and stopovers but also in aircrafts.
Your ship's doctor
