Traveller’s Diarrhoea: Symptoms, Treatment & Travel Advice

Traveller’s diarrhoea is one of the most common illnesses affecting people abroad. It is usually caused by contaminated food or water and often settles within a few days, but dehydration and more serious symptoms can sometimes require medical treatment.

If you develop diarrhoea while travelling, the main priorities are to replace lost fluids, watch for warning signs and seek medical help promptly if symptoms are severe. This guide explains what causes traveller’s diarrhoea, how it is treated, when to seek urgent help and what to do if illness disrupts your journey home.

What Causes Traveller’s Diarrhoea?

Traveller’s diarrhoea is most often caused by bacteria, although viruses and parasites can also be responsible. Infection usually follows eating or drinking something contaminated with organisms that your body is not used to.

Common sources include:

• Unsafe drinking water
• Ice made from contaminated water
• Food that has not been cooked thoroughly
• Food left unrefrigerated or exposed for long periods
• Raw or poorly washed fruit and vegetables
• Unpasteurised dairy products
• Poor hand hygiene

Street food is not automatically unsafe, but hygiene, storage and cooking practices matter. Food cooked freshly and served piping hot is generally a safer choice than food that has been sitting out.

What Are the Symptoms of Traveller’s Diarrhoea?

Symptoms can begin during a trip or shortly after returning home. Typical symptoms include:

• Frequent loose or watery stools
• Urgency
• Stomach cramps
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Fever
• Weakness or tiredness
• Signs of dehydration

Most uncomplicated cases are self-limiting and improve within a few days. Persistent diarrhoea, particularly symptoms lasting for two weeks or more, may need further investigation.

How Can You Tell If You Are Becoming Dehydrated?

Dehydration is one of the main concerns with diarrhoea, especially when vomiting is also present.

Warning signs can include:

• Strong thirst
• Dry mouth
• Dark urine
• Passing urine less often than usual
• Dizziness or light-headedness
• Weakness
• Sunken eyes

Older travellers, young children, pregnant travellers and people with significant health conditions can become unwell from dehydration more quickly and should seek medical advice earlier.

How Is Traveller’s Diarrhoea Treated?

For many travellers, the most important treatment is rehydration. Continue drinking safe fluids and eat normally as tolerated. Oral rehydration salts can be especially useful because they replace both fluid and electrolytes lost through diarrhoea.

If commercially prepared oral rehydration sachets are available, mix them exactly as instructed using safe drinking water.

Antibiotics are not routinely needed for every case of traveller’s diarrhoea. Whether they are appropriate depends on the severity, likely cause, destination and individual medical circumstances. Seek professional medical advice rather than taking leftover or unprescribed antibiotics.

Can You Take Loperamide for Traveller’s Diarrhoea?

Loperamide can provide short-term symptom relief for some adults and older children, particularly where frequent diarrhoea makes travel difficult. However, it should not be used indiscriminately.

Do not rely on loperamide if you have blood in the stool, a high fever, severe abdominal pain or other concerning symptoms. Follow the instructions on the packet and seek medical advice if symptoms continue.

If you are pregnant, have inflammatory bowel disease, significant medical conditions or are unsure whether the medicine is suitable, ask a pharmacist or doctor before taking it.

When Should You Seek Medical Help?

Most mild cases settle without hospital treatment, but some symptoms need prompt assessment.

Seek urgent medical care if you have:

• Blood or mucus in the stool
• A temperature of 38°C or above
• Severe or worsening abdominal pain
• Repeated vomiting and an inability to keep fluids down
• Confusion, fainting or marked weakness
• Signs of significant dehydration
• Jaundice or a new rash

You should also seek medical advice if symptoms are not improving after around three days, or sooner if you are elderly, pregnant, immunocompromised or have other health conditions that make dehydration more risky.

Can You Fly with Traveller’s Diarrhoea?

Mild diarrhoea does not automatically make someone unfit to fly, but the practical demands of an airport and flight can be difficult if you need frequent access to a toilet, feel weak or are becoming dehydrated.

If you have a high fever, blood in the stool, repeated vomiting, severe dehydration or have needed hospital treatment, do not assume you are fit to fly simply because your ticket is booked. Ask the treating clinician whether you are medically fit to travel.

Where symptoms are severe, delaying the journey until you are stable is usually safer than attempting to travel while acutely unwell.

What If You Are Too Unwell to Fly Home Normally?

Most cases of traveller’s diarrhoea will never require specialist medical transport. However, severe dehydration, sepsis, significant weakness or another underlying gastrointestinal infection can occasionally lead to hospital admission and make ordinary air travel unsuitable.

Once the patient is medically stable, the journey home may involve:

• A normal flight after recovery
• Wheelchair or airport assistance
• A commercial flight with a medical escort
• Ground ambulance transfers
• A private air ambulance in the rare cases where substantially greater clinical support is required

Planning a medically supported journey usually starts with a current hospital medical report.

How Can You Reduce the Risk of Traveller’s Diarrhoea?

No food-and-water precaution removes the risk completely, but sensible hygiene can reduce exposure.

• Wash your hands regularly with soap and water
• Use alcohol hand gel when handwashing facilities are unavailable
• Drink water from a source you believe is safe
• Use safe water for brushing your teeth where tap water is not recommended
• Be cautious with ice if you are unsure how it was made
• Choose food that is freshly cooked and served hot
• Wash or peel fruit yourself where possible
• Avoid raw or undercooked meat and seafood
• Be cautious with unpasteurised dairy products

Before travelling, check current destination-specific health advice and consider carrying oral rehydration salts in your travel medical kit.

What If Diarrhoea Continues After You Return to the UK?

If diarrhoea persists after your trip, or you develop blood in the stool, fever, severe pain or other worrying symptoms, seek medical advice and tell the clinician where you have travelled.

Persistent symptoms may sometimes require stool testing or further investigation for bacterial or parasitic infection. Your travel history can help the clinician decide which causes need to be considered.

Medical Repatriation After Severe Illness Abroad

If you or a relative is hospitalised abroad with severe diarrhoea, dehydration or another gastrointestinal illness and cannot travel home normally, SkyCare can review the medical information and assess the available repatriation options.

This may include a commercial medical escort, coordinated ground ambulances or, where the patient requires a higher level of medical support, private air ambulance transport.

For advice about the journey home, contact SkyCare with the patient’s location, intended destination and current medical report.

Clinically reviewed by Dr Lee Collier – SkyCare Repatriation on 14/04/2025. Editorially updated by SkyCare Repatriation on 24/08/2026 using current UK travel-health guidance. Next clinical review due 14/04/2027 | Originally published 14/04/2025.