Abdominal cramps? Frequent loose or unformed bowel movements? Feeling of urgency? Vomiting? And fever? If you are a traveler from a developed country to developing countries, you might have suffered from these physical tortures during or after your trip. To give you and everyone a clear view, these are all symptoms of a condition called Traveller’s Diarrhoea (TD) or also known as "Bali Belly," Delhi Belly," "Montezuma’s revenge," and "Rangoon runs," which is regarded the most common illness affecting international backpackers.

So, what is diarrhoea or traveller’s diarrhoea? And what are the basic things you should know about this travel menace?

Basically, Traveller’s Diarrhoea is a self-limiting condition that clears up after 3 to 4 days, or even last a week—but only 10% of the cases—and may occur 1 or 2 weeks of arrival to any of the developing countries. However there is no absolute number of days as to when it will be experienced, since it may suddenly occur at any time during your travel or soon after returning home. Traveller’s diarrhoea is acquired by ingesting contaminated food or water, may it be cooked or uncooked; and the microorganism contaminants that trigger this illness are E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Rotavirus, Campylobacter, and Giardia.

The thing here is, the reason why those travelers from developed countries are the ones prone to this condition is because of the rapid and drastic change in the type of organisms in their gastrointestinal tract, organisms which they are not used to and virtually absent in their regular environment. And at some cases, these microorganisms causing traveller’s diarrhoea to those people living in developed countries appear to be harmless to the locals of the developing nations, which the most likely reason is that they have acquired immunity to them. While traveller’s diarrhoea can actually be seen in visitors of any country, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia are considered places with highest risk—since attack rates of up to 50% have been reported from there. On the other hand, relatively developed countries such as Australia, Northern Europe, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and the USA are being crowned as countries with low risk of TD cases.

Aside from the nature of the destination, other factors that worsen or cause this illness are the tropical climate and gravely poor general and personal hygiene. Because of inevitable and avoidable issues when travelling, suffering from Traveller’s Diarrhoea is high, which is approximately 30 to 80% of travelers. In addition, TD is seen relatively more common in young adults than the older adults, presumably because of their more adventurous way of travelling of sorts.

Unfortunately, there is no vaccine created yet to protect travelers from Traveller’s Diarrhoea, so the greatest weapon everyone should possess is prevention beforehand. Seeing to it that good proper hygiene is observed all the time during the travel, avoiding risky food and drinks (e.g. raw and undercooked meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables and fruits, tap water and ice, unpasteurized milk and other dairy products), and preparing food and drinks properly are simple steps with long way to go in order to achieve an enjoyable and satisfying trip anywhere abroad.