This week My Daytalks to Dr Graham Fry, founder of Tropical Medical Bureau
EACH MORNING before I leave home I check the newswires to see if anything related to tropical medicines has happened overnight. I also read my e-mails. This morning I got one from a guy who had been bitten by a dog in Colombia and wasn't happy with the care he received locally. He was right: he needed an extra rabies shot and a tetanus injection.
I get about 10 such queries from patients a day. When incidents occur the key thing is to take action early. Very often, if you have a bite or a rash and you leave it, something that wouldn't have been a big issue if caught early on becomes one.
Many e-mails are from people who are changing their travel itinerary and want to make sure they are covered before they go to a country they hadn't initially planned on visiting.
I live in Killiney, in Co Dublin, and today is fairly typical in that I have a four-hour vaccination clinic in Dún Laoghaire in the morning followed by a four-hour one in Bray, in Co Wicklow, for people with health issues related to their travel.
The latter clinics are much more interesting to me, with symptoms ranging from skin rashes to bowel problems or chronic fatigue. Very often people will have been from pillar to post trying to get a diagnosis but couldn't get the right one, because nobody thought to make the connection with travel.
It's not just exotic places that can give rise to problems, either. There are things you can pick up in countries such as Spain or the US that don't kick in for anything from two months to a year after you get home. It isn't common but it happens, and a GP can't diagnose something if he or she is not aware of it. We see it all the time.
People are travelling farther afield and more often than they were even five to 10 years ago. They are also more inclined to want to get away from other travellers and off the beaten track. We also see business travellers going farther afield these days, and the greater the distance you are from medical treatment the greater the risk.
Depending on the time of year, I might be in Africa, at a medical missionary hospital I work in three or four times a year. I gave up my job as a neurosurgical registrar in a Dublin hospital back in the 1970s to set up Tropical Medical Bureau, specifically to give me more time for that kind of mission. I love going there, but I also love what I do with TMB. I enjoy going to work, helping people get well.
When I finish up in Bray this afternoon I've to deliver a talk on tropical medicines to a group of GPs in Naas, in Co Kildare, updating them on the subject. I'd normally have an event like that once or twice a week.
When I get home I'll always check my e-mails again. Because of the different time zones they come in all the time.
Unfortunately I don't get any sort of physical exercise. I played a lot of hockey when I was younger, but nowadays the only exercise I get is taking the dog out, and even that's a short walk.
I'm fairly typical of doctors that way. Ask any of them how good they are about maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and if they're honest they'll all admit to being pretty bad at it. On the plus side, I'm very happy.