Tropical Paradise

A tropical island with its tropical climate and tropical surroundings is indeed a tropical paradise. Warm weather all year round. Guaranteed to attract a lot of people of non-tropical origin. And it is good, all in all. The tourists will have a nice place to relax and the locals will get a lot of them nice greenbacks.


A tropical island with its tropical climate being paradise to people is good. The problem is that tropical climate is also paradise for the less visible type of locals, namely parasites. These parasites ranging from the least visible, namely viruses, to the more visible such as tape worm can cause exquisite difficulties. More so to the tourists because they haven't had the time to develop immunity against said health-sucking mongrels.


One of the most famous and quite deadly parasites is the protozoa, Plasmodium sp., which causes malaria. People sort of know it if they're infected by them red-blood-cell-destroying minions. Very few people can ignore high fever, shivering, joint pain, vomiting and sometimes, convulsions. The disease sometimes causes fatalities, which is kind of sad because death from malaria is avoidable. Infected people need only to contact their doctors and ask to be treated with chloroquine or quinine or the like. People can even avoid being infected by taking drugs, such as proguanil or mefloquine.


Traveller's diarrhea is known to be the most annoying disease you can contract. Imagine, you're in a beautiful tropical island and you're supposed to roam said island, but you're stuck in your dingy little room due to having to spend most of your day in the restroom. How does that feel? Unfortunately, the most common cause of TD, namely E. coli, rules the entire tropical climate. People would argue, Oh, ... but what about the locals? The locals are fine, mostly because they are immune to it. They consume contaminated food and water on daily basis. It's like weight-lifting. You don't go 100 kgs in a single day. You do it gradually for years.
But, fear not, dear travellers. Medical workers in the tropical region are well versed in treating infectious diseases. Mind you, don't let the diarrhea go on and on for days. Dehydration is no fun, and you might have to be hospitalized. So much for vacation...