Ellen, mozzies are unlikely if you're by the sea; they can't deal with saline conditions. It will be sand flies you have to worry about. Use loads of suntan and spray. Keep away from the aerosol stuff and go for the DEET sprays. I find that sensible clothes help as well. Trousers help, but don't go for heavy fabrics; they don;t provide much more protection from bites and tend to generate more heat= sweat = more mozzie attractant. But it all boils down to doing as much as you can to prevent bites; I was in Kenya and Tanzania last summer with little malaria coverage; the Larium was just crazy; got more bites than you can wave a big stick at (my legs go walk abouts out of the mozzie net at night) but was lucky enough to get away with it. Contrast with someone else with daily drugs and no reported bites (yeah, right) who came down with yellow fever and malaria. Sometime luck does play a part; but it's all about minimising risks. T. -----Original Message----- From: Ellen Bulger To: [log in to unmask] Sent: 12/27/2001 6:10 PM Subject: Travel Health info and question Howdy Shellers, At a holiday dinner this past week, I heard something that made my ears perk up; that there were deals to be had on flights to exotic destinations like Fiji. Some relatives are planning a vacation to Oaxaca. It seems that Americans are starting to travel again, but perceive Mexico to be safer than other destinations, like Fiji, so there were deals to Fiji, not Mexico. Shelling freak that I am, I dashed to my computer to find these deals. I haven't yet. Airfares to the South Pacific are enough to make you fall out of your chair. I am still looking. But as I stumbled about the web, I discovered a cool site that could be a valuable resource to fellow shellers; Travel Medicine, Inc. 800/872-8633 travmed.com Years ago I took a trip with Liberty Travel to Cozumel. They plopped us into the middle of a typhoid epidemic without a word of warning. Five of the six of us got typhoid. Now I never trust anyone else to do my travel health research. I'm swooning to go to Fiji, if I can figure a way to afford it, but I do not want Dengue fever which is a SERIOUS problem there. Typhoid in Mexico was bad enough, thank you very much. Even after all these years the memory is quite vivid and, compared to dengue, typhoid is a walk in the park. Travel Medicine, Inc. has the best information on travel heath issues that I have ever seen. IMHO, it blows away the CDC and WHO pages, at least for the lay person. Learn all the gnarly details about malaria and dengue! The report on Vanuatu alone, reads like the outline of one of Stephen King's grimmer efforts. I had sought out the site to order packets of rehydration mixtures for severe diarrhea, what the WHO people call resurrection fluid. (Living in AZ now, I'm determined to give Mexico another go, but this time vaccinated up the wazoo and better prepped.). But I found much more. The up-to-date health information on various countries was amazing. And the products offered were pretty cool too, including a synthesized sort of pyrethrum called Permethrin for treating clothing. As mosquitos often bite through clothing, I've often wondered about the effectiveness of DEET alone, which is just for skin. An insecticide on clothing helps shore up the gaps, but as an avid snorkeler & beachcomber, I still have problems to solve. Skeeters bite right through dive skins. Permethrin stays on clothing for several washings, but is toxic to marine life. So I ask all you world travelers, how did you address these problems on Fiji and elsewhere? My idea of a trip is not Disneyworld safe and sterile, but I would like to shell on my adventure, not spend my time writhing in febrile agony. Thanks in advance, Ellen