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> Health and Altitude |
No special inoculations are required before entering China. Some doctors recommend a gamma globulin injection and travellers may feel safer having cholera, tetanus and typhoid shots, but these are up to the individual. Although hospitals are not yet up to Western standards, health care in China, even at the local level, is good and relatively inexpensive. Travellers crossing the Khunjerab Pass and overnighting at Tashkurgan, where the altitude is over 4,000 metres (13,000 feet), may suffer altitude sickness. This is caused by an insufficient flow of oxygen to the brain and other vital organs. It can affect anybody at above 3,000 metres (10,000 feet). However, unlike visitors to Tibet, who remain at high altitudes throughout their stay, Silk Road travellers are exposed to such high altitudes for only two or three days at the most.
The symptoms of altitude sickness include headache, nausea and shortness
of breath. In 99 per cent of these cases, rest and two aspirins relieve
the discomfort. However, the serious, sometimes fatal, conditions of pulmonary
and cerebral oedema also begin with these same symptoms. Over-exertion
and dehydration contribute to mountain sickness. Drink plenty of fluids,
do not smoke, and avoid sleeping pills or tranquillisers, which tend to
depress respiration and limit oxygen intake. Diamox (acetozolamide), a
mild prescription diuretic that stimulates oxygen intake, is used by doctors
of the Himalayan Rescue Association in Kathmandu for climbers making sudden
ascents.