The cholera outbreak in Haiti has been ongoing for over five years, and, unfortunately, the disease is still harming and infecting many. Over 8,500 people in Haiti have died from the disease and thousands more have been infected.

Cholera is a bacterial disease most commonly caused by ingesting contaminated food or drinking water. It can cause severe diarrhea and dehydration. The disease has spread rapidly in Haiti since hygiene practices are poor and there is a lack of proper sanitation and latrines in the devastated nation.

In Haiti, the most common, current sanitation system consists of bayakous, a system similar to having an open septic tank underneath the home. One of the biggest problems with bayakous is that many people cannot afford to have one, causing contamination in many otherwise clean areas. After the earthquake in 2010, short-term solutions were put in place in the form of porta-potties. However, this was never meant as a long-term solution, and proper, sustainable sanitation practices have still not been implemented.
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Are you getting ready to embark on your next journey abroad? Remember, booking a plane ticket and taking care of any medical needs are not the only things you have to check off of your to-do list before traveling overseas. You may also need a visa to even be able to get in to your destination.

Many countries require you to obtain a visa for travel by dropping off and picking up your actual passport and supporting application documents at the consulate that has jurisdiction over your state of residence. Unfortunately, this consulate is likely to be out-of-state and open only during select hours.  That would mean you would have to take time off from work and spend extra money just to make a trip to the consulate!  You would also likely have to wait a few days for your application to be processed, or you would have to make another trip to pick up the documents when your visa was processed successfully.

However, there is good news. Today, travelers have an option for Passport Health to handle the visa process (that is all too often fraught with bureaucratic red tape!) on their behalf.  Passport Health will handle the entire process of application completion and submission for you, so there is no need to become overwhelmed by paperwork or make a trip out to an out of state consulate.  The visa process often seems daunting, but three simple steps can help you find out what you need to know so that have everything ready before you go.

These three easy steps to a stress-free visa are:

1. First, pay a visit to the U.S.State Department’s website to find out the general requirements for obtaining a visa for your destination country.  You might be pleased to learn that some countries do not require visas for short stay. Visiting the website also provides other useful information like the maximum amount of currency you are allowed to bring into each country, and it provides some generic guidance on the vaccinations you need to have received for your trip.

2. Next, do a little research on your destination and create a timeline marking important dates and the expected amount of the time it will take for your visa to be processed. Some countries allow you to start your visa application process several months in advance. You also need to be aware of how long it will take to get your passport back, as visa processing times vary by country.

3. Ultimately, however, it is best to turn to a company that is expert in processing travel documents, like Passport Health, for help. Slogging through government web pages trying to find the right documents can take a lot of time, and accidentally making a mistake on your application can take even more.  Some countries are so particular that if the address on your driver’s license and the address you enter into your application differ by even a punctuation mark, the application will be rejected!  Leave the minutiae to the experts: we can handle the visa process for you and obtain a visa on your behalf. After just filling out a simple form, Passport Health’s travel document experts can help you get a visa for any global destination, and we are here to answer any questions you may have throughout the application process.

Don’t wait until the last minute to get your visa. Following these easy steps early on can help obtain your travel visa with ease. Avoid the nightmares of visa delays or expensive last-minute expedited processing, and you’ll be one giant step closer to the vacation you’ve been waiting for.

For more information on Passport Health’s visa and passport processing program please visit our Visa and Passport Processing portal.

Photo Courtesy of MSF

Today is National Doctor’s Day, and we would like to recognize those who have made a difference by bringing better health to communities all over the world. One particular group, Médecins Sans Frontières, has impacted the lives of millions throughout the globe and forever changed the face of international public health and humanitarian aid. A key tenet of the organization is that borders are political boundaries, and we must prioritize people’s health and rights above these boundaries.

Image courtesy of MSF. Click here to view an interactive timeline of MSF’s work and history.

In 1968, a series of protests broke out all over the world in response to social conflicts, and many of these protests were rebellions against military and bureaucratic elites. The Parisian protests in May of that year were some of the most significant in history. Ten million workers and students took to the streets of Paris, France, in an effort to overthrow the government of General Charles de Gaulle. Amid these upheavals, a group of young doctors came together and decided to do something about the worldwide issues of war and famine. They sought out to recreate the concept of emergency aid.

They decided to travel around the world to find and help victims of war and disease. Not only would they reinvent the idea of emergency aid, but they also succeeded in creating a new brand of humanitarianism. This group would later become known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders.
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January 24, 2015 marked six months since the last polio case had been reported in Nigeria. The country has been aggressively working toward eliminating polio, and has shown a 92 percent decrease between 2013 and 2014. Polio is a viral disease that if not vaccinated for, can lead to paralysis, difficulty breathing, and in certain cases, death. There are two types of polio that can be contracted from the poliovirus, these include: non-paralytic polio and paralytic polio. In the case of non-paralytic polio, flu-like symptoms are most commonly displayed for a period of around 10 days. Paralytic polio is rare, but can affect the spinal cord, brainstem, or both. Post-polio syndrome includes many disabling symptoms, which can occur at an average of 35 years after the initial poliovirus infection. As of 2015, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan were the only places in the world had not completely eliminated polio.
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