Heading to the 2014 World Cup? Health Experts Suggest Seeing a Doctor First

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released health and safety tips for those traveling to Brazil in a few weeks to attend the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Health experts urge receiving the appropriate preventive medicines.

The CDC recommends that those attending the event in Brazil should visit their doctor four to six weeks before leaving the country. Some vaccines and medicines might be essential to receive prior to arriving in Brazil, and they take a few weeks to become fully effective. For example, mosquitos in Brail may carry dengue fever, yellow fever, or malaria, and vaccinations/medications are available to prevent yellow fever and malaria.

But vaccines and medicines aren't the only suggestions that the CDC has for travelers. The agency also urges travelers to purchase travel health and medical evacuation insurance, carry a travel health kit, take measures to avoid mosquitos (wearing proper clothing and using insect spray), stay clean, eat and drink safely, and avoid traveling alone, especially at night.

"We're expecting that a lot of Americans will attend and we want to give them a chance to review some of the health and safety issues that come with attending World Cup-like events in a country like Brazil," said Joanna Gaines, a senior epidemiologist at the CDC, in this Reuters news article. "We want to make sure that we can get our prevention message out to as many healthcare providers as we can."

All of the CDC's suggestions are so travelers can avoid being part of an illness outbreak. Meningococcal outbreaks occurred after a soccer tournament in Belgium in 1997 as well as the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia back in 2000. Whenever there is a large international gathering of people, there's a higher risk of diseases spreading at an unprecedented rate. People might be traveling from the Middle East or West Africa, and both regions are currently experience outbreaks with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and the Ebola virus.

For the most part, basic preventive health measures such as washing your hands, drinking bottled water, and applying insect repellant should do the job, but seeking advice from a health care professional can also provide more tips on how to be safe and healthy.