MILAN – The holiday period is just around the corner and Italians are already dreaming about their travel destinations. Enjoy the Italian wonders or dive into an exotic destination abroad? The common goal is to relax and escape from the daily routine. However, sometimes the most popular destinations hide unpleasant surprises, especially due to the less than ideal hygiene and sanitary conditions.
How to prevent these problems
It is important to raise the public’s awareness of the issue. For this reason authoritative Institutions such as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provide the Italian public with useful precautions and tips in order to protect themselves from possible diseases and infections, such as, for example, the importance of using and drinking only bottled water and sealed beverages as a health and hygiene guarantee. The Ministry of Health recommends, first and foremost, being aware of the epidemiological situation in the travel destination area, and therefore warns not to swim or even wade barefoot in fresh and standing water and to use safe water. Wherever bottled mineral water cannot be used, the drinking water or water for other domestic uses should be filtered, boiled or treated with disinfectants.
Good information helps citizens
The aim of the appeal by institutional bodies on this topic is to inform the Italian public on the danger of contracting infective diseases in high health risk countries such as Africa, South-East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In these areas disease is very widespread with cures and treatments varying from country to country.
The rules to follow
Italians, following a few rules from the INMP, (National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty), can avoid hygiene-health problems on holiday. Here are the rules to follow:
- Only rink bottled and sealed water and beverages
- Do not add ice to drinks
- Raw fruits and vegetables should only be consumed after being peeled and washed with “safe” water
- If there is no potable water, consume only boiled water or water which has added disinfectants.
- Eat only well-cooked foods and while they are still hot
- Do not eat fish or seafood that is raw or cooked rare
- Do not drink unpasteurised milk or eat unpasteurised dairy products
by editorial staff
