Our genes influence whether we are fat or thin by shaping which types of microbes thrive in our gut, scientists are now suggesting.

A recent discovery is pointing towards healthy bacteria one day being used to treat obesity and by studying human twins, scientists have found a type of bacteria that was not only associated with being thin but also seemed to run in families.

When the researchers treated mice with a specific member of this bacterial family, isolated from the twin study, the animals gained less weight than mice that did not get this treatment.

They are now working to identify which genes seem to influence the presence of the bacteria and why it would have an effect on weight and hope to be able develop these findings to create a probiotic to regulate weight.

If the answer to either is yes,  here are some tips on how to prevent illnesses or other health complications while travelling.

Be Selective About Your Meals
Try to find out how your food was prepared. By eating or dining in well-established restaurants, which to be fair are usually a little more expensive, your food is likely to have been better prepared and stored in more hygienic conditions.

Avoid uncooked food
Fruit or salad shouldn’t be part of your diet while traveling, nor should uncooked vegetables but if you can’t avoid them make sure that they are thoroughly washed in clean water and fruit and salad is completely dried before you eat it.

Avoid ice and straws
Typhoid is normally transmitted through contaminated water and although most people usually remember to avoid drinking tap water when travelling, many forget that the ice in their cocktails is more often than not made from tap water.

Seek out local foreigners
Having a friend who is a ‘local’ can be helpful in identifying places which serve food that is free from disease and unhealthy bacteria.

Bottled water
Always carry your own bottled water and ensure that you use bottled water when brushing your teeth and keep your mouth closed when showering.

Be cautious of the dairy
Whilst delicious, these foods often harbor harmful bacteria.”

Last year over nine million people developed TB around the world, according the World Health Organisation, having risen by almost 500,000 during the past 12 months, although the number of people dying from the condition continues to decline.

None the less, campaigners say that one of the biggest problems in tackling the deadly disease was gauging how many people were affected. About 1.5 million people died from TB in 2013 and it remains the second biggest killer disease from a single infectious agent.

ALC Health attended this year’s popular Mind Body & Spirit Exhibition held at the Andalucia Plaza Hotel in Marbella on the 25 & 26 October.

It was a great opportunity to meet and chat not only with a number of existing ALC Health members but also those people attending the event who were looking for medical insurance cover”.

In Mali, the World Health Organization (WHO) has put under medical observation 82 people who had contact with the two year old girl deceased last Friday after contracting Ebola.

WHO is exploring the possibility of creating a medical treatment center in Kayes. 40 volunteers have already been trained to search for contacts of infected persons.

Mali, which hosts a large Stabilization Mission of the United Nations (UN) and a French military contingent (because of the presence of radical Islamists in the North), is ill-prepared for a potential Ebola cases increase.

Now more than ever, we strongly recommend avoiding or interrupting all travel to the countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

At this stage, we consider there are no resources to support medical and non-medical needs, including for non-Ebola situations in these countries and exiting these countries on an urgent basis is becoming increasingly difficult.

Foreigners requiring medical attention for any emergency condition in these countries are at serious risk of having unmet needs and being subject to uncomfortable or potentially dangerous conditions

Dr. Cai Glushak
International Chief Medical Officer

A leading malaria control expert has said efforts to contain the disease may be jeopardised by the Ebola crisis.

Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, who heads the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, said after visiting west Africa: “Understandably, all the health workers’ attention is on Ebola.”

Children’s wards which used to be full of malaria patients were becoming “ghost areas,” she added.

In 2012, malaria killed 7,000 people in the three countries worst hit by Ebola.

Most of these will have been young children – although malaria is curable.

The disease caused almost 4,000 deaths in Sierra Leone in 2012 – as well as around 2,000 deaths in Liberia and approximately 1,000 in Guinea.

SOURCE BBC World

The World Health Organisation has reported that the number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has now passed 10,000 resulting in nearly 5,000 deaths. The three worst-hit countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have accounted for all but 27 deaths

Mali has become the latest West African nation to record a death from Ebola where a two-year-old girl has died. More than 40 people are known to have come into contact with her and have been quarantined.

Liberia remains the worst affected country where there have been 2,705 reported deaths, followed by Sierra Leone with 1,281 fatalities and 926 in Guinea.

The WHO said the number of cases was now 10,141 but that the figure could be much higher, as many families were hiding relatives at home rather than taking them to treatment centres.

Most medical centres are now reported to be overcrowded.

Lower respiratory infections are now the world’s number one killer. Nearly three million people die from the disease each year, about  half of them children under the age of five.

HIV/AIDS comes in at number two, but is responsible for less than half the number of deaths caused by lower respiratory infections with around 1.3 million deaths reported last year.

The number of deaths from diarrhoeal diseases is at number three with tuberculosis close behind at number four.

Estimates suggest that one-third of the world’s population have been infected by TB but are not ill with the disease, at least not yet, with over 95 per cent of deaths reported in developing countries”.