The following is a list of some common and not so common illnesses and diseases to which you may . . . → Read More: Diseases from Insects, Worms, Bacteria, Viruses, etc.]]>

The following is a list of some common and not so common illnesses and diseases to which you may be exposed while travelling.

It is probably not complete and may not even be accurate, so again, make sure you consult a qualified professional before travelling and don’t rely too much on the information contained herein.

The list is in no particular order but commonest health hazards tend to be nearer the top.

For each there is a section listing where in the world it is usually found, what is its cause, symptoms, treatment and prevention.

Most of the diseases and illnesses below can be prevented by either vaccines or pills, good hygiene and safe food preparation practices, drinking and using (e.g. for washing, cleaning teeth, cooking with, swimming, cleaning fruit and vegetables, for ice in drinks, etc.) only treated or clean water, and avoiding being bitten by various insects and worms.

Diphtheria

Found – rare in developed countries due to vaccination, but is still endemic in developing countries and the former states of the USSR.

Vaccine is recommended for those who will be in close contact with infected people in endemic areas.

Cause – a disease of close contact, a bacterial illness transmitted through droplets in the air.

Symptoms – sore throat and fever. Can be life-threatening.

Prevention – by updating your diphtheria vaccine.

Tetanus

Found – rare in developed countries due to vaccination.

Prevention – by the tetanus vaccine. A booster is recommended every ten years, perhaps even every five years for developing world travel. Sometimes can be fatal.

Polio

Found – virtually eliminated in the developed world, but is still a threat to non-vaccinated travellers in developing countries.

Cause – by a virus.

Treatment – there is no effective treatment for polio.

Prevention – with either the oral or injectable vaccine.

Cholera

Found – mostly in the developing world. However, risk to travellers is slight.

Cause – infection is by ingesting food or water infected with the bacteria, but especially from shellfish.

Symptoms – severe water loss due to watery diarrhea and vomiting. Death can result in a few hours from rapid fluid loss.

Treatment – immediate rehydration therapy to prevent dehydration and death. ninety-nine percent of victims recover given adequate rehydration.

Prevention – drink only bottled or boiled water. Be careful with food as possible. There is a vaccine but this is not usually recommended due to its ineffectiveness, expense, and the rarity of cholera in travellers.

Dysentery

Found – bacillary and amebic. Both are prevalent in many developing countries, but rare in travellers.

Prevention – (for both types) eating only cooked vegetables and peeled fruits, and by only drinking boiled or purified water.

- Bacillary dysentery

Cause – from infected food handlers not washing hands and from unclean flies landing on food.

Symptoms – sudden watery diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea, and fever, then passing blood and mucus after a few days.

Treatment – rehydration therapy, with no solid food for the first day or two. Antibiotics can help. Most people start to recover after about a week. Death can be caused by dehydration in vulnerable people.

- Amebic dysentery

Cause – swallowing the histolytica cysts from infected water or food (lettuce, uncooked vegetables, and unpeeled fruit).

Symptoms – range from a few loose stools with rumbling pains in the stomach, to a severe case with high fever and bloody, watery diarrhea. Shaking chills, fever, weight loss, and painful enlargement of the liver.

Treatment – rehydration therapy and drugs (e.g. metronidazole). Doesn’t go away on its own, unlike bacillary dysentery.

Hepatitis type A

Found – worldwide. Most common serious disease among travellers in the developing world where food preparation standards are poor.

Cause – transmitted by a virus through contamination of food or drinks prepared by an infected person with poorly washed hands.

Symptoms – either nonexistent or begin abruptly two to six weeks after exposure. Similar to flu, fever, aches, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal discomfort, and liver pain, darkened urine, light yellow stools. Four to seven days later the symptoms may become more severe, with diarrhea, vomiting, itching, and jaundice (yellow skin and whites of the eyes).

Treatment – there is no treatment for hepatitis A. Most people recover within six weeks. Hepatitis type A does not lead to chronic hepatitis. Rest and abstaining from alcohol until recovered are recommended.

Prevention – take care of what and where you eat. Vaccination with the full, two-dose series of hepatitis A vaccine is the best way to prevent hepatitis A virus infection. Immune globulin is available for short-term protection (approximately 3 months) and must be administered within 2 weeks after exposure for maximum protection. Good hygiene, including handwashing or use of hand sanitizer after using the bathroom and before preparing or eating food is essential.

Hepatitis type B

Found – in body fluids of infected persons. Type B is found worldwide, but is much more prevalent in Asia and Africa.

Symptoms – are the same as for hepatitis A, except sometimes more severe. Many people have no symptoms. About 10% of hepatitis type B cases lead to chronic hepatitis, a severe inflammation and destruction of cells within the liver, leading to cirrhosis.

Prevention – the hepatitis B vaccine, although this is usually only recommended for health care workers, people who have many unprotected sex partners, and drug addicts.

AIDS

Found – worldwide. The hardest hit area is sub-Saharan Africa. Also spreading rapidly in Asia.

Cause – spread primarily through heterosexual sex, blood transfusions. Nearly 20,000 people are infected every day.

Prevention – travellers in Africa should bring their own hypodermic needles for emergencies. Many countries now require HIV testing for long-term visitors of greater than six months, or applicants for work or residency. In most cases HIV testing is not required for visitors of a few months or less. Most HIV carriers don’t know they’re infected, and HIV is thought most infectious the first year after infection.

Typhoid

Found – developing parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Cause – is caused by the bacteria salmonella typhi. Feces, urine, and contaminated food and water are the principal sources of infection. Again often through a food handler with poor hygiene. Sewage-contaminated shellfish is also a source.

Symptoms – limited to a fever of one week, but can include headache, anorexia, general malaise, and constipation, giving way to diarrhea, a non-productive cough, nosebleed, and raised pink spots on the upper abdomen. Complications may result, and the death rate for serious cases is ten percent for those untreated, one percent for those treated.

Treatment – with antibiotics.

Prevention – by cautious eating and drinking, and by an oral or injectable vaccine, both of which are about sixty-five percent effective for five years. The oral vaccine is four pills taken every other day; the injectable requires two shots one month apart. The oral vaccine has fewer side effects. Antibiotics are not recommended as a preventive since they disrupt normal intestinal bacteria and can facilitate infection with salmonella typhi.

Malaria

Found – Africa and Asia. Poses the greatest health risk to travellers in warm climates, and is in fact the greatest health threat to humanity with up to 300 million cases occurring worldwide each year, with about one million deaths. The tragedy is currently increasing as mosquitoes become insecticide-resistant and forms of malaria become drug-resistant.

Cause – spread by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito, which generally feeds dusk through dawn. It is caused by four types of a single-celled protozoa: vivax, ovale, malariae, and falciparum. These parasites attack and explode red blood cells.

Symptoms – for the first three types may include the classic malarial fever in three stages. First is a cold stage characterized by severe shivering, followed by a high fever stage of up to 105F (40C). Finally there is intense sweating which brings the fever down. The victim may also vomit and have a bad headache. The patient is left weak and tired, and sleeps.

These stages may occur cyclically, either every other day or every third day, but only after the disease is well-established. Malaria can be very difficult to diagnose in early stages.

Falciparum is a more severe type of malaria as all red blood cells are attacked. Death may result a few hours after symptoms begin. The brain may be affected, and liver and kidney failure are common.

Treatment – usually with a big dose of chloroquine. Falciparum malaria is resistant to chloroquine, however, so other drugs must be used. Discuss treatment with your travel clinic before you go, and immediately with local medical professionals if you acquire malaria-possible symptoms.

Prevention – is complicated, so only trust a high quality travel clinic to prescribe the proper medications for your specific destinations and physiology.

Yellow fever

Found – Yellow fever is found east of the Panama canal, in parts of South America, and in much of Africa.

Cause – a virus hemorrhagic (bleeding) disease transmitted in urban areas from person to person by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which feed during the day. In jungle areas it is transmitted from monkey to man by various mosquitoes.

Symptoms – begin three to six days after infection, are relatively mild in eighty percent of cases, and include fever, headache, and weakness, which last up to four days. The other twenty percent are more serious, including high fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, bleeding from the gums and nose, and severe pain in the neck, back, and legs. These may last a few days, followed by a remission, and then followed by a more severe illness, including increased fever, vomiting of blood, and jaundice due to liver damage, hence the name yellow fever. Approximately five percent of all victims die within days of the onset of symptoms.

Treatment – maintaining blood volume and fluids. No drug works against this virus.

Prevention – by the yellow fever vaccine, which lasts ten years. A yellow fever vaccination certificate (yellow card) is required for entry into and from countries where the disease is prevalent.

Dengue fever

Found – in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.

Cause – a viral, hemorrhagic disease transmitted by day-feeding Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Symptoms – appear five to eight days after a bite from an infected mosquito, and include high fever, severe muscle and joint pain, and rash. They subside and recur about every three days. Recovery takes several weeks, with victims rarely dying.

Treatment – pain killers to relieve symptoms. There is no specific treatment.

Prevention – avoiding mosquito bites. There is no vaccine.

Plague

Found – While a few cases of plague occur every year in the American Southwest, it is mostly a disease of South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and India.

Cause – transmitted to humans by the bites of rodent fleas. The risk of plague to travellers is almost zero, especially if you make a habit of not handling rats, dead or alive.

Rabies

Found – worldwide.

Cause – a viral disease of the nervous system. Transmitted by animal bites, scratches, or even licks on an open cut.

Skunks, raccoons, and bats are the major carriers in North America. In Central and South America dogs and vampire bats are the primary vectors. Jackals are the primary carriers of rabies in Africa. In Southeast Asia and India dogs are the leading vectors to humans. Note, however, that any mammal bite may transmit rabies. Ireland, Britain, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand do not have the disease, and require an extensive quarantine for pets entering the country.

Symptoms – begin from nine days to many months after exposure. These include fever, hyperactivity, seizures, and often an intense thirst that cannot be quenched since liquids produce violent and painful spasms in the throat. The victim will die within three to twenty days from onset of symptoms.

Prevention and Treatment – passive immunization before symptoms appear, and ideally within two days of exposure. Competent medical advice should be immediately sought after a bite in a rabies endemic country. Clean the wound thoroughly with soap and clean water for at least five minutes, but don’t stitch it closed. The sooner vaccination is begun, the better the prognosis. Today’s vaccines are not so painful, and are no longer given through the stomach.

There are about 30,000 deaths every year from rabies, nearly all in developing countries. Almost invariably fatal if left untreated.

Chagas’ disease

Found – rural Central and South America, but especially Brazil. Also called American sleeping sickness. Can be fatal.

Cause – transmitted by the bite of the assassin bug, which makes its home in thatched roof and adobe huts in This bug prefers to bite on the face and defecate. Single-celled parasites called trypanosomes enter the body, grow to huge numbers, then attack many organs, including the heart.

Symptoms – a hard, purple swelling which appears on the bite site about a week later.

Treatment – effective only if caught early.

Prevention – not sleeping in mud huts, by using mosquito netting, or by at least sleeping in the middle of the room away from walls. This disease is extremely rare in travellers.

Brucellosis

Found – rare in the US but not in Latin America and Mediterranean countries.

Cause – bacteria from unpasteurised dairy products.

Symptoms – high fever, shaking, sweating, and severe depression.

Treatment – antibiotics and rest.

Schistosomiasis (bilharziasis)

Found – is common in tropical regions worldwide, affecting about 200 million people.

Cause – several species of flukes (flattened worms) called shistosomes. They live in fresh water lakes and rivers, where they live part of their life cycle in snails.

Symptoms – vary from none to serious. The first is usually an itchy rash where the parasite has burrowed through the skin. Weeks later flu-like symptoms may begin, including high fever, chills, muscle aches, and diarrhea. The symptoms may go away and recur a month or two later. Long-term damage includes cirrhosis and kidney failure.

Treatment – a single dose of an anthelminthic (antiparasitic) drug, which kills the flukes.

Prevention – avoiding freshwater rivers and lakes in the tropics, but especially the Nile Valley, where schistosomiasis is rife.

Leishmaniasis

Found – the Middle East, South America.

Cause – a single-celled parasite transmitted via sandfly bites.

Symptoms – Some varieties affect mostly the skin, producing large ulcers at the bite area. In the Middle East this is known as the Baghdad boil. South American forms of the disease may cause more severe tissue damage, especially to the face. Another variety, called kala azar, causes internal organ damage.

Treatment – sodium stibogluconate.

Prevention – avoid sand fly bites by wearing shoes, socks, pants, long-sleeves, and by using DEET.

Filariasis

Found – in the tropics.

Cause – larvae or worms, and transmitted to man by insects.

Onchocerciasis (river blindness)

Found – in Central and South America, and Africa.

Cause – a worm infestation. The parasite is transmitted from person to person by the black simulium fly, which is found only near fast-moving rivers and streams.

Treatment – with diethylcarbamazine, which must be administered under close medical supervision since severe reactions to the dead and dying worms may occur.

Prevention – avoid black fly bites.

Giardiasis

Found – in the United States and worldwide, especially in the tropics and the public water systems of the former Soviet Union.

Cause – an intestinal infection caused by a single-celled parasite. Giardia cysts (eggs) are spread from the feces of infected animals.

Symptoms – the cysts hatch two or three weeks after ingestion, causing abdominal symptoms such as violent diarrhea, foul-smelling gas, and cramps. Sixty percent of those infected, however, show no symptoms.

Treatment – giardiasis clears up on its own after two or three weeks, although metronidazole speeds recovery.

Prevention – drink only pure or treated water.

Jiggers

Found – a type of sandfly found in tropical areas of the Americas and Africa.

Symptoms – burrow between toes and under toenails, where eggs are deposited under the skin causing a painful and itchy pea-sized swelling.

Treatment – removing the jigger with a sterile needle, and thoroughly cleaning with antiseptic.

Prevention – wear shoes or at least sandals, and by keeping nails well-trimmed.

Chiggers

Found – worldwide on grass and weeds.

Symptoms – red mites attach themselves to bare legs and ankles and feed on blood. May cause a painful, itchy swelling about a half inch in diameter.

Prevention – wear socks and pants, and by applying DEET to exposed skin, socks, and pant cuffs.

Bedbugs

Found – worldwide. Small, flat, usually brown bugs found in beds and furniture during the day, and come out at night.

Symptoms – a straight line of red bites across the skin. They rarely spread disease, but the bites should be cleaned with antiseptic to prevent infection.

Prevention – check bedding carefully, look for tiny red splotches on sheets and blankets. If found, take another room or use a hammock.

Sandflies

Found – tiny, nearly-invisible long-legged flies common to tropical areas.

Symptoms – walking at at dawn and dusk stirs up flies and results in bites. Can transmit several diseases to humans.

Prevention – remain indoors or in a hammock during dawn and dusk. Cover exposed skin, especially legs, ankles, and arms, and use DEET. Wear socks.

Lice

Found – tiny, flat, wingless bugs found wordlwide.

Treatment – body lice are killed by washing clothes in very hot water, or by using a hot dryer. Other lice can be killed with lotions and shampoos containing benzene hexachloride.

Scabies

Found – are tiny mites found worldwide that burrow into the skin and lay eggs.

Symptoms – intense itching, especially at night.

Treatment – with an insecticide lotion.

Hookworms

Found – half-inch long worms that live in the small intestines of 700 million people around the world, especially in the tropics.

Cause – burrowing into the feet, or by ingestion.

Symptoms – a red and very itchy rash on the feet that lasts for several days. A cough and pneumonia are also possible when a heavy infestation passes through the lungs.

Prevention – wear shoes or sandals.

Treatment – an anti-worm drug.

Guinea worm

Found – numerous African and Asian countries.

Cause – drinking water containing the cyclops crustacean water flea.

Symptoms – begin a year later when the worm is fully grown and ready to reproduce. It comes to the surface of the skin where a blister forms. Hives, diarrhea, and vomiting often occur at this time. When the blister bursts the end of the worm is exposed, and debilitating pain begins.

Treatment – wrap the exposed worm around a stick, and then gently wind it out over several days. This is dangerous (although impressive) as if the worm breaks an infection can develop.

Beefworm (botfly larvae)

Found – Central America. It is common in the jungles of Belize.

Symptoms – like a mosquito bite that doesn’t go away. After several weeks it resembles a boil, except for a tiny hole in the center. If you look closely with a magnifying glass you will see something pushing to the surface every so often to breathe and expel waste. As it feeds it occasionally delivers a sharp pain like a hot needle stabbing into flesh, which lasts only a few but very long seconds.

Treatment – the traditional Mayan method is to pour tobacco juice into the hole which kills the beefworm in about an hour. You then easily squeeze it out. Another method is to suffocate it overnight by covering the hole with multiple layers of glue and plastic wrap. It becomes poppable if you manage to cut off 100% of its air.

Tumbu fly

Found – in Africa.

Cause – fly lays eggs on clothing left out to dry, which later hatch with skin contact.

Treatment – similar to the botfly.

Prevention – ironing clothes to kill the eggs.

These include the usual ones you would get at home, colds, sore throats, and other infections. Take proper medications, . . . → Read More: Other Travellers’ Ailments]]>

These include the usual ones you would get at home, colds, sore throats, and other infections. Take proper medications, or try to get access to good medical care whilst abroad.

Jet lag

Cause – crossing many time zones in a short space of time.

Symptoms – disorientation, tiredness, and irritability for several days after a long journey.

Treatment – take time to become oriented to the local time and climate when you arrive. Outdoor activity and exercise can help. Some take Melatonin or a short-acting sleeping pill. Afternoon naps can help also.

Prevention – rest well before leaving home. Sleep on the aeroplane on long journeys. Drink plenty of water.

Motion sickness

Prevention – if you are susceptible to motion sickness, Dramamine pills work better if taken before symptoms develop. Scopolamine ear patches may also help. While at sea or riding a bus get as much fresh air as possible, and focus vision towards the horizon. Think pleasant thoughts. Avoid greasy or spicy foods.

Altitude sickness

Found – occurs at altitudes above 8000 feet (2500 meters). About twenty-five percent of travellers to high altitudes will be affected, but younger people are more susceptible.

Cause – ascending to altitude before the body has time to adjust to the lower air pressure and lower oxygen content of the air.

Symptoms – mild and flu-like, such as headache, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea, and fatigue. Insomnia often results due to shortness of breath. Usually these symptoms last only a short time as the body adjusts. Many travellers have trouble sleeping their first night or two in high-altitude cities.

Severe cases result in fluid buildup in the lungs. This leads to intense breathlessness, coughing and wheezing. Fluid may also build-up in the brain, leading to severe headache, seizures, vomiting, hallucinations, and even coma.

Treatment for mild cases – is usually just rest. Plan for an easy day or two upon landing in a high-altitude city. Aspirin may help. Avoid alcohol and drink plenty of fluids.

Treatment for severe cases – requires immediate action. Don’t wait until morning or the victim may die or suffer brain damage. They should be brought down at least two or three thousand feet and have oxygen administered. They should also be brought to a hospital as soon as possible where diuretic drugs may be given.

Prevention – best by slowly gaining altitude. If you walk to gain altitude you can go back down a few thousand feet if you begin feeling symptoms. One rule of thumb is to always sleep below the highest altitude achieved that day.

Infected wounds

Cuts, blisters, and other wounds can become infected very fast in the tropics due to the rich . . . → Read More: Other Medical Problems]]>

Infected wounds

Cuts, blisters, and other wounds can become infected very fast in the tropics due to the rich microbial environment.

Treatment – thoroughly clean wounds, and to treat with an antiseptic such as tincture of iodine, which also kills viruses. Keep wounds covered with a clean bandage and recheck. Double-strength triple antibiotic ointments such as Neosporin are also helpful.

Rashes

To combat itching from stings and plants in the tropics, be sure to have antihistamine pills and a tube of 1% hydrocortisone anti-itch cream.

Prevention – a layer of clothing and shoe leather.

Treatment – take immediate action by washing the affected area with water, beer, or spit. Run water over it for ten or more minutes if possible. Then disinfect with soap or alcohol. In the tropics you risk infection by scratching severe itches. Benadryl antihistamine pills and 1% hydrocortisone cream works well.
Blisters

Treatment – at the first sign of a “hot spot,” take action. The sooner the healing process begins the better. A piece of Compeed works, as well as Duct tape, Moleskin, and a liquid product called NuSkin also work.

Prevention – keep a thick pair of socks (such as Thorlo) in your pack in case blisters develop. Can become easily infected in the tropics, so be extra careful to avoid them, and keep them clean and disinfected when they develop. If you decide to pop a blister, use a sterilized needle and apply antiseptic. Cover and check regularly.

Foot infections

Treatment – Lotrimin AF (clotrimazole) antifungal solution can be used to treat athlete’s foot, ringworm, and other unusual skin infections which may crop-up during extended tropical travels.

Once, whilst returning from a trip to Italy, I met a man on a train who was travelling dressed . . . → Read More: Document Security]]>

Once, whilst returning from a trip to Italy, I met a man on a train who was travelling dressed only in a swim suit and a towel. He had left his bag on the beach for just a few moments to paddle in the sea. When he returned it was gone, along with his passport, money, tickets and all of his clothes (apart from his towel).

As well as a lesson on the importance of looking after your possessions as you travel, strangely enough this story also shows how little you really need to take with you. People (including myself) made small contributions to his funds and food supplies (although none had donated any clothes when I saw him), and sympathetic train porters and guards had let him on the train without many questions.

A number of people each year have everything stolen from them as they travel around the world. Most just go to the local shop and buy what they need and go on with their trip. This is made more difficult if you have no access to money, and you definitely will have trouble crossing international borders without your passport.

Of course, the best thing is to avoid getting into situations such as this in the first place. Some ways of doing this, such as physical security (money belts, etc.), are covered in the ‘Packing’ section under ‘Security‘. The following gives some basic tips and ideas for protecting and gaining easy access to your essential travel documents.

Making Copies of Everything

With the exception of cash, there is almost no paper or document that cannot eventually be replaced while travelling if you keep a copy or a record of it. You will probably not lose any of the items below but if you do and have taken elementary precautions, you will be able to get them replaced with the least amount of trouble.



The way I usually do this is to gather together all the documents listed in the ‘Papers‘ section of this website. Then I empty out my travel wallet / money belt and make photocopies of everything.

You can use the photocopier’s zoom function to make everything really small (but readable) to fit two or three documents onto one page. You can also copy on both sides of the paper.

It is not necessary to photocopy every page of your passport, just the photo page and current visas, perhaps. This should make it a lot easier to replace them if lost or stolen. Also, take a copy of your birth certificate to help you get a new passport.

At the same time I make photocopies of all the financial information listed in the ‘Money‘ section of this website, such as credit cards, traveller’s cheque serial numbers, insurance policy numbers, bank accounts, social security number, the serial number on your camera. and so on.

Another, more high-tech, way of duplicating important information is to use a scanner to make electronic copies and then store them on a computer or removable storage. Once a document is scanned it can then be stored using an online file storage service, or even emailed to yourself for retrieval from anywhere in the world (even if you are only left with your swim suit).

If you don’t have a scanner then the local copy shop should be able to help out. As a last resort you can use a digital camera to take pictures of credit cards, passport pages, etc.

Another good idea is to give the photcopies/scans to a trusted friend at home whom you can call on the phone from anywhere in the world to retrieve the information (well, the text and numbers parts, that is, not pictures, obviously). Or if you are travelling with a companion then you can also swap documents with each other.

Encryption

If most of this sounds quite insecure (i.e. having multiple copies of everything, including credit card and bank account numbers thereby multiplying opportunities for loss or theft), then don’t worry! There are some tricks to make the copies more secure.

The safest ways to do this are usually electronic. Scanned documents saved as text files or pictures (jpg’s, gif’s etc.), can be encrypted and compressed (using, for example, Winzip with a password). Email and server storage are quite secure, too. However, bear in mind that this is completely dependent on how strong your passwords are. Also, be careful when retrieving your data from a computer that isn’t yours (for example, in an Internet cafe) as key-stroke logging software may be installed.

A good way to avoid this, and also for securing paper copies, is not to write down the real numbers at all, but simply to alter them in some manner known only to yourself. One method I used to use was to alter one digit (the last number of a credit card number, for example) by, say, adding a 1 to it. Reversing the number can work too, as well as complicated things like multiplying the whole thing by, say, 2 or 6, and so on (and remembering which!).

Portable Storage

Recently, I have been using various portable methods of storing encrypted documents. Most small electronic devices around these days can be used for this, some more obvious than others.

For example, I have encrypted zip files with scans of my passport(s), financial data (credit cards, traveller’s cheque numbers, etc.), licenses, guide books, and so on, copied to a small flash drive which fits quite nicely in my Eagle Creek all terrain money belt (shown here).

Just as a test to see what is possible, I have also made copies of the same zip file onto my camera (copied via USB from my hard drive to the camera’s memory stick folder), my phone’s memory (using Bluetooth to connect) and my iPod (enabling disk use and copying it to the Notes folder), plus I have emailed it to myself as an attachment. And, of course, the original file stays on my laptop.

(If anyone wants any help doing things like the above then email me and I can explain further. If there is enough demand I will write a separate page on it on this website).