World Hunger Day and Travel Health: The Disease Burden Behind the Headlines

World Hunger Day is observed on May 28 each year to draw attention to global food insecurity, its causes, and its consequences. For most Canadians, it registers as a humanitarian statistic. For Destinations Travel Clinic, it is a clinical context we work within directly.

Food insecurity and hunger are not separate from travel health. They are among its primary drivers. The infectious diseases that pose the greatest risk to international travellers, particularly those visiting sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and parts of Latin America, cluster in the same regions where food and water insecurity are highest. This is not a coincidence. It is the direct result of how poverty, food insecurity, and under-resourced sanitation infrastructure shape disease epidemiology.

Understanding this connection makes travellers better informed and better prepared.

Food and Water Insecurity Drive the Diseases Travellers Face

The illnesses most commonly prevented by travel vaccinations share a common pathway: contaminated food and water. In regions where food insecurity is high, sanitation infrastructure is typically under-resourced, supply chains for safe food are unreliable, and the conditions that allow pathogens to enter the food and water supply are harder to control.

Typhoid Fever

Typhoid is caused by Salmonella Typhi, transmitted through food and water contaminated with infected material. It remains endemic across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa, regions that also bear a disproportionate share of global food insecurity. Estimates suggest 11 to 20 million cases occur annually worldwide. For travellers, typhoid vaccination combined with strict food and water precautions are the primary preventive measures.

Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A is a vaccine-preventable liver disease transmitted through contaminated food and water, and one of the most common vaccine-preventable travel illnesses globally. Outbreaks are closely correlated with inadequate sanitation and food handling, conditions most prevalent in food-insecure regions. A traveller who eats from uncontrolled food sources, drinks unfiltered water, or consumes ice made from untreated water in an endemic region faces meaningful risk.

Cholera

Cholera is a bacterial infection driven almost entirely by failures in water and food security infrastructure. Outbreaks occur predominantly in regions experiencing humanitarian crises, extreme poverty, and food insecurity. While cholera is rare in healthy adult travellers from Canada under typical travel conditions, it is a relevant consideration for travellers visiting active outbreak zones, aid workers, and humanitarian volunteers.

Travellers’ Diarrhea

The most common travel illness overall, travellers’ diarrhea, is a direct product of the food and water safety gap between Canada and many popular travel destinations. Estimates suggest 20 to 50 percent of travellers visiting high-risk destinations experience some form of diarrheal illness. The causative pathogens, including enterotoxigenic E. coli, Campylobacter, and Salmonella, all trace back to inadequate food handling and water treatment infrastructure.

What This Means for Your Pre-Travel Consultation

At Destinations Travel Clinic, our physicians and nurses assess each traveller’s risk based on their specific itinerary, not a generic destination checklist. The food and water security profile of your destination is one of the most clinically relevant variables in that assessment.

Vaccination planning. Which vaccines are indicated depends on where you are going, for how long, and what you will be doing. Typhoid, hepatitis A, and cholera vaccines are recommended based on specific destination risk profiles. Our physicians review your itinerary in detail and recommend what is clinically warranted for your situation.

Food and water safety counselling. We review specific food and water precautions relevant to your destination: which foods carry the highest risk, how to identify safe water sources, whether commercially bottled water is reliable in your specific destination, and how to manage medications or special dietary needs during travel.

Medication interactions and individual risk. Some travellers carry medical conditions or take medications that interact with food and water safety concerns. Immunocompromised travellers, patients on medications that affect gastrointestinal function, and travellers with inflammatory bowel disease face a different risk profile than a healthy adult on a short trip. Our physicians account for this.

Travellers’ diarrhea management. We counsel travellers on what to carry for diarrhea management, when oral rehydration is sufficient, and when to seek care. We also discuss standby antibiotics where clinically appropriate for the individual and destination.

This level of individualized assessment requires more than a travel vaccination appointment. It requires a physician who understands travel medicine, your specific itinerary, and your personal medical history.

Serving Those Who Serve: NGOs, Charities, and Humanitarian Travellers

Many of our regular clients who come to the Destinations Travel Clinic are not going abroad for tourism or business; rather, they are going to food-insecure regions specifically to address the crisis, to distribute aid, deliver medical care, support agricultural recovery, or staff humanitarian operations on the ground. They are members of NGO groups that do this type of work on a regular basis. 

NGOs and charitable organizations working in food-insecure regions have trusted DTC with the pre-travel health preparation of their staff and volunteers. These travellers face a fundamentally different risk profile than a tourist. They are often heading to active outbreak zones, staying for extended periods, working in rural or remote areas with limited access to medical care, and operating under physical and logistical pressures that compound health risk.

Their vaccination protocols need to be comprehensive and itinerary-specific. Their counselling needs to account for the environments they will actually be working in, not a generalized destination profile. And their preparation needs to include clear guidance on managing illness far from reliable health infrastructure.

This is the standard we apply to every humanitarian and NGO traveller we see. It is why Destinations Travel Clinic has become a trusted partner for organizations whose work takes them to the world’s most challenging destinations.

Food and Water Safety for Travellers: Core Principles

For travellers visiting high-risk destinations, these are the evidence-based food and water safety principles our clinical team applies:

Safe water. Drink bottled water from sealed, commercially produced sources, or water that has been boiled or treated with a certified filter or chemical purification. Avoid ice unless you are confident of its source. Use safe water for brushing teeth.

Safe food. Choose cooked foods served piping hot. Avoid raw produce unless you have peeled it yourself. Be cautious with street food in high-risk settings unless it is freshly prepared and still hot. The principle “boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it” remains practical guidance.

Hand hygiene. Handwashing before eating is one of the most effective interventions against foodborne and waterborne illness. Carry hand sanitizer where soap and water are unavailable.

Avoid high-risk settings. Buffets where food has been sitting at room temperature, seafood in inland or low-sanitation settings, and undercooked meats carry elevated risk regardless of destination.

The Global Picture at Your Pre-Travel Consultation

Destinations Travel Clinic exists because travel health is a specialty. The connection between global food insecurity and travel-related infectious disease is one reason why. Travellers who understand the disease ecology of their destination make better decisions about vaccination, food and water safety, and when to seek care.

On World Hunger Day, we mark the human cost of food insecurity globally. For those of us in travel medicine, it is also the context within which some of the most serious travel-related illnesses emerge.

Because your health doesn’t take a vacation, even when you do.

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The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information does not substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment. Please do not initiate, modify, or discontinue any treatment, medication, or supplement solely based on this information. Always seek the advice of your health care provider first. Full Disclaimer