Anti-Zika Tips For Business Travel

You might think that the biggest hazard for any business trip is delayed flights making you miss all of your planned meetings. However, if you are traveling to Central, South America, and earthen some of the US’s southern states, then you need to be careful about mosquitoes. That’s because they now carry more than malaria.

Zika is another mosquito-borne disease but, unlike malaria, there is no cure for it, and it can lead to some very serious health conditions. To ensure that you are safe during your business trip, you need to remember these very useful tips to keep yourself safe.

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Protect Your Office

In fact, your protection against zika should begin before you even leave your office. Mosquitoes carrying the zika virus have now been found in the USA, especially in the southern tips such as Texas and Florida. Because of this, it is very important to take precautions including hanging mosquito screens on the windows and entryways. If you ever spot some mosquitoes around your property and are concerned about the risk of zika, you should speak to ABC Home & Commercial or another company who offer treatment options for buildings. They will be able to inspect the property and remove any potential risks.

Take Effective Mosquito Repellent

There are a whole bunch of mosquito repellents on the market right now, but some are a lot more effective than others. It’s important that you buy the right ones so that you aren’t wasting your money. In order to get the best protection from mosquito bites, you need to look for a repellent that has the active ingredient DEET. Even though there are some very early studies that showed DEET to not be a particularly safe ingredient, the majority of modern studies into this ingredient have not shown any negative side effects. And anyway, the effects of the zika virus are a lot more dangerous than any that a repellent containing DEET will cause. So, always remember to buy repellent that contains DEET as it can provide you with very effective protection.

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Don’t Go Outside If It Isn’t Necessary

As you are traveling for business, you probably won’t have a whole lot of time to explore your destination and go sightseeing. However, if you do have a spare day or any free time, it’s a good idea to stay indoors. Whenever you go outside, you are only drastically increasing the chance of being bitten by a mosquito and infected with the zika virus. So, if possible, try and stay indoors whenever possible. For example, rather than going for a jog around the local neighbourhood, you will be much better off using the hotel’s gym or pool to exercise. These days, it’s also possible to stay in your hotel for most meals thanks to food delivery services like Delivery Hero and Deliveroo. Plus, most hotels have fantastic onsite catering facilities these days, and most hotel restaurants are now open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Opt For Long Clothes

If you do need to go outside then as well as covering yourself with plenty of mosquito repellent, you should always wear long clothes. By long clothes, I mean t-shirts with long sleeves and long trousers. That way, there is a lot less skin on show to attract mosquitoes to you. Don’t worry about being too hot in long clothes - wearing items of clothing made with natural cotton can help your skin breathe and can keep you nice and cool no matter how hot it gets outside! It’s also a good idea to always wear a hat when you are out and about, as mosquitos can sometimes bite the scalp through hair.

Avoid Badly Affected Areas

Of course, you need to ask yourself whether or not your business travel is really important. If it is just going to put you in a particularly bad danger zone, you should seriously consider canceling your travel plans. Alternatively, you might just want to delay them and wait for the current zika virus risk in a particular location to become less serious. Thanks to modern tech, most international travel isn’t quite so urgent these days as you can now carry out meetings over Skype and other online calling software no matter where in the world you might be. The zika virus is a real risk to international business travellers these days, and it is certainly something that you need to take into account when you are making travel plans. Make sure that you are never put in serious danger during your business trips!