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3.1.<br />
Preventative measures against infectious diseases<br />
You can avoid most backcountry illnesses by drinking clean (treated) water, keeping<br />
your nails short, and washing your hands with soap each morning and before turning<br />
in, as well as after using the bathroom and before eating.<br />
Three types of germs are responsible<br />
for illness:<br />
Viruses<br />
Bacteria<br />
Parasites<br />
With the exception of certain parasites,<br />
germs are so small as to be invisible.<br />
They are present in the environment (air,<br />
water, land), and in humans and animals.<br />
Germs are transmitted:<br />
Through simple contact with the environment;<br />
through respiratory, digestive<br />
or sexual contact with another person<br />
or the environment; and from animals to<br />
people, as with a mosquito bite (malaria,<br />
Japanese encephalitis).<br />
There are means of prevention and<br />
treatment.<br />
Prevention: some examples<br />
Good personal hygiene and clothing<br />
care (e.g., avoid fleas and lice).<br />
Good hand and food-preparation<br />
hygiene (diarrhoea).<br />
Clean drinking water (diarrhoea, hepatitis<br />
A and E, polio, typhoid).<br />
Mosquito repellent (malaria).<br />
Condoms (hepatitis B, HIV/AIDS).<br />
Vaccinations.<br />
Treatments<br />
Antibiotics for bacteria.<br />
Anti-parasitics for parasites.<br />
No treatment for most viruses.<br />
Do not use withou<br />
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