Urgent vaccination warning for Aussie travellers heading to Europe
A significant increase in the liver infection has been reported in Austria, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia from January to May - with a total of 2097 cases this year.
Slovakia, which has had an outbreak since late 2022, reported 880 cases this year.
Austria has recorded 87 cases including three deaths, and Czechia has seen 600 cases including six deaths, with young children being the most affected group.
Hungary has experienced 530 cases, mainly among adults, and Germany - though not labelled an affected country - had three cases matching Hungary and Austria.
A spokesperson for the Interim Australian Centre for Disease Control has warned Australians to take care regarding the current outbreak in Europe.
'Australian travellers should be aware that hepatitis A is highly contagious,' they told The Daily Telegraph.
'You can get infected after ingesting the virus by: eating contaminated raw food... drinking contaminated water... handling soiled nappies, linen or towels of an infectious person; sharing personal items with an infectious person...having close or intimate contact with an infectious person.'
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control issued a risk assessment on Hepatitis A (HAV) on June 18.
'This outbreak reminds us that hepatitis A can cause serious illness and death, especially among people with limited access to healthcare and basic hygiene,' it said.
'Vaccination and good hygiene are the best ways to protect against hepatitis A infection.'
The centre's head of unit for One Health Related Diseases said the group would need to 'strengthen outreach' through access to vaccination and basic sanitation.
Hepatitis A, which is caused by a virus spread via contaminated faeces making its way into food and drink, is not common in Australia.
The virus typically spreads through a lack of clean water and by not cleaning things correctly, Hepatitis Australia said.
People can also get hepatitis A through close physical contact with someone who has it, including through oral or anal sex.
Almost everyone who has the virus will recover, but a small number can get very sick or die from liver failure.
The majority of people affected are those aged 50 years or older, or who have other health issues (like hepatitis B or C).
Smartraveller's advice for Australians to avoid infectious diseases including Hepatitis A also suggested a range of sanitation measures.
'Wash your hands often and use hand sanitiser before you eat,' the advice said.
'Drink bottled water from a sealed bottle.'
Smartraveller also suggested using water-sterilising tablets or filtration bottles to make tap water safe and washing fresh produce with bottled or sterilised water.
Australians are advised to avoid drinks with ice cubes, uncooked or undercooked food, fresh salads and raw vegetables.
They are also told to avoid contact with water or soil that may be contaminated with sewage and, in some places, swimming or wading in any fresh water.
Signs of the infection include a high temperature, flu-like symptoms - such as fatigue, headache and muscle pains - feeling or being sick, abdominal pain, changes in bowel movements, pale grey coloured faeces and itchy skin.
In more severe cases, a patient's skin and eyes may appear yellow, a condition known as jaundice and a serious sign the liver is struggling to function correctly.
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Times
a day ago
- Times
An expert guide to a great (and affordable) late-summer break in Croatia
Here's a tip you can have free: late summer to early autumn is when Croatia is at its best. Temperatures ease, resorts relax and the sea is its warmest. That's not an observation based solely on my 20 years of visiting. Last month the European Travel Commission noted that about nine per cent of European travellers had switched to holidaying in so-called shoulder seasons. Why? Friendly temperatures and prices reduced by half from peak season. Ah yes, the prices. You can spend big on Croatia nowadays, dropping more than a grand a night on premium stays during high season. The question is — whisper it — do you need to? Sure, luxury hotels feel like a treat, a proper indulgence, but if there's one thing I've learnt about Croatia it's that a memorable stay can be found anywhere. You won't find a place with a warmer welcome, and the seas are some of the cleanest in Europe. That's why we've compiled this list of hotels for September and October breaks. It includes a few expensive stays for a splurge, but most are priced for affordable holidays, especially if you look beyond poster destinations such as Dubrovnik and Split. Given our term-time dates, we've skipped family hotels for adult stays: wellness specialists in quiet areas, such as Maslina Resort on Hvar and rural wine hotels including San Rocco in Istria; chic city stays in Dalmatia and rustic bolt holes on island backwaters. All are places to remember how to relax, to discover what Croatians call pomalo, which translates roughly as living free from schedules. You'll know it better as the holiday jackpot. This article contains affiliate links that will earn us revenue Here's a stay in the north Adriatic, and the Kvarner Gulf mountains that most visitors bypass. Restored by a German-Croat family, its farmhouse has expanded organically into an eight-room bohemian village. It's a stay of simple rustic-chic rooms with pea-green shutters, stone the colour of shortbread and original beams (the best have balconies); a bolt hole for reading books and dips in a small pool, and for good organic vegetarian food eaten at a communal table. In short, it is a stay of heart and soul. It's not even remote — the beach at Crikvenica is four miles away and Rijeka is a 30-minute B&B doubles from £87 ( Fly to Rijeka It's a sign of where Cres may be heading that Marriott chose this rustic island for Croatia's first Autograph Collection hotel, which opened in March. It's quite a shift for Cres, a nicely scruffy, Italianate medieval town where you'll eat gelati as small fishing boats chug from the harbour at dusk, yet ten minutes' walk away there's this slick wellness hotel, with sunloungers before the sea and a chef who's shooting for Michelin stars in nine-course tasting menus. The marketing people are calling Cres 'Croatia's often forgotten island'. I'd come soon if I were B&B doubles from £212 ( Fly to Rijeka Before you read this, check the price below. Astonishing isn't it? That's not the reason the Romans called Rab 'Happy Island' (Felix Arba), nor is it why Edward VIII, holidaying here with Wallis Simpson in 1936, felt so, um, joyful he went skinny-dipping. It'll boost your mood too. Rab, in north Croatia, is a love letter to the art of gentle holidaymaking: slow days in a villagey medieval capital, long lunches, 22 sand beaches. The Arbiana was around in Edward's time, and while its classic decor won't make the heart beat faster, it's a charming stay with the sea just Seven nights' B&B from £1,070pp, including flights and car hire ( The Alhambra's Cube Spa was named world's best at the Luxury Lifestyle Awards last year. In 2023 Alfred Keller, its Michelin-starred restaurant, took the top prize at the World Culinary Awards as Europe's best fine-dining hotel restaurant. Not bad for a five-star on a Croatian island few Brits have heard of. Modern Mediterranean sums up the decor in a hotel created from two art nouveau villas integrated by a glass-skinned block. Refined describes the atmosphere in a secluded pine-cloaked bay. Come to indulge between spa and sunloungers on the bay. B&B doubles from £352 ( Fly to Rijeka I chose a backstreet one-star rather than paying over the odds for an out-of-town mega-resort when I first visited Zadar two decades ago. Since then a new breed of central independent boutique stays has helped to raise the profile of Dalmatia's historic third city. This one's as central as it gets, scattering 16 rooms across an early 20th-century house, a 19th-century former military building and a medieval monastery. Such is Zadar's jumble. All are different but united in being elegant, modern and arty without showing off. Delightful breakfasts in a verdant courtyard B&B doubles from £122 ( Fly to Zadar Croatia's first Hyatt Regency arrived in May not in Dubrovnik, Split or Rijeka, but in Zadar. The five-star was installed in the former distillery of Maraska cherry liqueur — Alfred Hitchcock was a fan, which explains Alfred's Bar, with its sea views. Elsewhere the spa hotel has a Mad Men glamour to its streamlined lines. Befitting the brand, it's a work-and-play address with plenty of marble and wood in the 133 rooms but a fine pool on a vast waterside terrace that begs for cocktails. The old town is ten minutes' walk away, or two minutes by barkajoli (rowing boat) B&B doubles from £196 ( Fly to Zadar Exclusivity on Croatia's glossiest island doesn't come cheap. Ultimately it's up to you whether the four luxury suites here on Palmizana island are worth it. They're rather like an Adriatic take on a New Mexico casita: white cotton sheets and terracotta-coloured walls; a glass wall that slides open to the terrace; a hammock between palms and a plunge pool above the sea. But know this: you're on a tiny car-free island ten minutes from Hvar Town by taxi boat. When diners leave, you and the yachties have the bay to yourself. Think Robinson Crusoe in five-star style and you're B&B doubles from £757 ( Fly to Split Don't worry about the mention of 'resort' in the title. There are no tots whooping down waterslides at this 50-room Relais & Châteaux member — no surprise given that this spa hotel bills itself as 'Croatia's first mindful luxury property'. Rather, 'resort' means all that the thinking traveller requires for a sophisticated break near quiet Stari Grad harbour: chic understated decor, Michelin-rated dining in the Terra restaurant, sunloungers by the pool and sunset beats at the A-Bay beach bar. This month it launched a smart 13m speedboat for private excursions or celeb-style transfers from Split airport. Details B&B doubles from £437 ( Fly to Split I was sceptical when this opened in 2021. It looks like the lair of a Bond villain, and you'll need a similar bank balance to afford it. What were eight ultra-luxury suites doing carved into the hillside of an island backwater of the Zadar archipelago? The answer is Croatian starchitect Nikola Basic's concept of a 'landlocked yacht', where glass-fronted rooms frame views of seascapes (and olive groves, but you get the point). Like an exclusive cruise ship, it's escapism with an infinity pool, gourmet restaurant and spa. Unlike a cruise ship, you can leave whenever you want B&B doubles from £666 ( Fly to Zadar • 17 of the best cruises in Croatia The thing you need to ask about Dubrovnik is whether you genuinely want to be in the old town. Magical first thing, it's chocka by 10am in summer. Sometimes it's better to find a nice resort out of the centre offering everything you need and day trip in. 'Everything' at this 371-room five-star, refurbished in 2020, means three restaurants and three bars, a 2,000 sq m spa, a pool bigger than Dubrovnik's main square, knock-out views, and sea activities. It's 20 minutes' walk from the old town and — the clincher — it costs a quarter of the price of most central Five nights' B&B, including flights and transfers, from £1,391pp • Rixos Premium Dubrovnik hotel review: a swish five-star with fabulous views• More hotels in Dubrovnik We all want different things from hotels. For some the location comes first. For others it's style or good wellness facilities. Which brings me to this stay. The century-old five-star of Dalmatia's biggest city is no longer the most luxurious in town, nor the chicest. So why am I a fan? Well, they've spruced up the art deco and added a spa (rooms remain small, mind; corner ones are best). Breakfasts served by lovely staff are eaten poolside. Bacvice beach is moments away. And although a ten-minute walk from the old town, it's always an oasis of B&B doubles from £235 ( Fly to Split There are many cool stays in Croatia's best city. This isn't one of them, although it's one of the most memorable. A former Venetian noble's residence turned into a heritage hotel, it's a lucky dip of Renaissance beams and gothic fireplaces. The hum of laughter and conversation drifts in from the most handsome square in the old town — the corner room Vid Morpurgo has a balcony over the action. Caveats? The rooms are small by modern standards, and the decor is more homely than high end. And there's no parking. You won't find a nicer stay in the action of old Split, B&B doubles from £318 ( Fly to Split • Best luxury villas in Croatia You want Dubrovnik. You also want bygone Croatia. This is the answer. Part of the Adriatic Luxury Hotels group, this once dowdy three-star on a pretty harbour emerged from a complete refurbishment in 2022 to become a bolt hole for the superyacht crowd. The 21-room hotel in a historic house pulls off the neat trick of French elegance without appearing to try too hard. Don't be fooled — such effortless style takes a lot of work. Breakfast on the harbour terrace among potted orange and lemon trees is a joy. Dubrovnik is accessible by regular water taxis. Don't bet on making B&B doubles from £379 ( Fly to Dubrovnik Lesic Dimitri Palace is the luxury choice in dreamlike Korcula old town, but Tara's Lodge is a better bet for beach holidays. Think of this small modern block with 17 minimalist rooms as a four-star beach club. You'll drink morning coffee on a balcony — sea views are worth the extra £30 — then breakfast served by friendly staff. Days will pass between the private beach and Mediterranean cuisine in Mimi's Bistro. What more do you need? Possibly a car. Though Korcula island is accessible by ferry from Split or Dubrovnik, the old town is two miles from the B&B doubles from £118 ( Fly to Dubrovnik All set for an end-of-summer splurge? Then to Brac island we go. It's Croatia's have-it-all destination: gentle harbours with waterside restaurants, day trips to Croatia's most famous beach Zlatni Rat, hourly ferries to Split (Dalmatia's sexiest city) until midnight. The splurge is this adult-only five-star at Sutivan. Where other hotels are greige, it's a stay of bold, Italianate glamour with first-rate spa facilities. A place for lazy days with books beside a beautiful pool or on 280 sq m of private beach. Boats and mini-cabriolets are available to rent. Bikes are free. Luxury B&B doubles from £328 ( Fly to Split Rovinj is the pin-up of the Istrian coast. Seemingly created for Instagram, it has dreamlike Venetian streets and nightmare crowds. A report by Which? Travel in May recorded 133 visitors in Istria for every resident — the second highest number in Europe after the Greek island of Zante. There are a lot of day-trippers, even in September. That's where this adults-only five-star 20 minutes' walk from the old town comes in. The restaurant is excellent, the mood is calm. There's a luxury spa and a large pool. A private beach club sits alongside the hotel. Kick back by day and, when crowds ease and temperatures cool, drift into town to experience one of Croatia's most bewitching small towns hazed by a golden Three nights' B&B, including flights and transfers, from £1,568pp ( Welcome to the 1970s playground of the Adriatic. Rubbing shoulders were Abba, Sophia Loren and, um, Colonel Gaddafi. Look, it was a different era. By the 1980s five stars had become two. In 2022 it reopened after a £34 million spend that included gutting the place, and promptly won hotel of the year at the Croatian Tourism Awards in 2023. Radisson spent big because the location is peerless: beside the sea on a pine-clad bay yet three miles from central Pula. Perhaps also because vast Seventies spaces upgrade nicely into a refined modernist aesthetic. Jet2 has a new Pula route this year. What you save on flights, splurge here B&B doubles from £184 ( Fly to Pula • 18 of the best Croatian islands to visit In the 2017 movie Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, filmed on Vis island, Donna says she aims 'to make memories'. What she really sought was a bohemian lifestyle on an island far out to sea. Enter this relative newcomer to Croatia's most far-flung inhabited island. The ten-room stay in a historic harbour house is a fine match for a destination that gets more boho-posh by the year. Fine art photography on the walls, cool rattan armchairs, lovely staff, bikes to borrow ― it nails laid-back luxury. Expensive, perhaps, but what price the opportunity to live out the Mamma Mia! fantasy of a simple, stylish life for a fortnight?Details Two nights' B&B from £728 ( Fly to Split This is the year to visit Hvar, Croatia's glitziest island. Negative headlines from a modest beach club scene led authorities to introduce noise restrictions in March (85 decibels, in case you're wondering) and there's a no-nonsense approach to misbehaviour. The goal is to return Hvar Town to being a buzzy small harbour with Venetian Renaissance architecture. Good luck to them, but if you're choosing to visit you'll probably seek some nightlife, so it makes sense to stay somewhere modern, stylish and beside the water. This fits the bill. Boats bob outside, Carpe Diem cocktail bar is opposite and Hula Hula beach club is just around the bay. Details B&B doubles from £253 ( Fly to Split The Elafiti island Lopud has shifted from backwater to Dubrovnik day trip in the 20 years I've been going. Obvious, really — the harbour's pretty, Sunj beach has sand. Anyway, that's where Sipan island comes in. The castaway cool of Bowa beach club aside, the next island on is the anti-Lopud: three miles of nicely scruffy harbours, vineyards and Renaissance chapels. Most people get around on foot. If you're after nothing more than books, strolls, swims and quiet nights, you'll fit right in. The Kristic family's hotel is spotless, friendly, has a small pool and is bang on the sea. They'll transfer you from the airport by B&B doubles from £120 ( Fly to Dubrovnik Second cities such as Sibenik make for more rewarding breaks. They're generally quieter, have fewer tourists and are better value. This hotel, which opened in 2021, proves the point. It compacts all that is good about this small overlooked city in Dalmatia — an old town with a splendid cathedral, good restaurants, sea views — into a small hotel installed in a 17th-century monastery. Open the shutters and you'll see either old stone the colour of ivory or sea and islands that beg for day trips by ferry. Wallow in a rooftop hot tub and you'll see the cathedral spire above roofs. Now check out the price. Beat that, B&B doubles from £117 ( Fly to Split Trogir's fate is to be near Split airport and too often bypassed. Yet Unesco describes it as one of Europe's finest small towns: Romanesque churches, palaces from centuries under Venetian rule. So it is. What it doesn't say is that it has a pretty harbour that seems purpose-designed for pottering around. Stay at this pleasure palace for discerning aesthetes, sophisticated in its Scandi metropolitan style (geometric print throws, rugs skimming parquet floors) while being relaxed. There's the requisite spa plus two pools. The 'beach' of the name is scruffy shingle, but there are sandier stretches on neighbouring Ciovo island, linked by bridge. Parents rejoice: there's a babysitter B&B doubles from £175 ( Fly to Split For romance — historic lodgings, morning coffee before day-trippers arrive, siestas after lunch, strolls to bed after dinner — only the old town will do. This intimate house fits the bill nicely. On a narrow side street, it has 16th-century stone and beams in suites — smaller Standard and Attic rooms are in an adjacent cottage — but cons are mod. Decor is understated, with white walls and buff fabrics upholstering antique furniture. While rooms in the house have modest kitchenettes (those in the cottage share a kitchen) breakfasts are served in-room. Luggage transport into the old town is a nice B&B doubles £368 ( Fly to Dubrovnik Throughout August, Zrce beach on Pag island is Croatia's answer to Ibiza. Go in September or early October and the island reverts to its older self: bare pink-white mountains as austere and magical as a desert, still inlets and modest holiday resorts like Novalja. You're a couple of miles outside Novalja at this rural wine hotel. I first visited when it opened in 2003 and it remains criminally under-valued; one of those little black book finds. Here 11 rooms and suites make a virtue of simplicity, Michelin-starred chef Matija Breges does creative things with island dishes and staff are B&B double from £182 ( Fly to Zadar The 'Rocco' was one of Istria's first smart wine hotels when it opened in the northern wine hills in 2004. It has been eclipsed by more luxurious stays since, but you'll get a week at this 13-room place, with flights, for the price of three nights elsewhere. You're hardly roughing it either. Expect beams and stone walls, a pool and modest spa, free bikes, estate olive oils and wines in the restaurant. Better, it's not isolated like some rural stays, sitting at the edge of Brtonigla, a town yet to be overtaken by tourism. If you want that, it's ten miles away on the coast and in hill-town Motovun. Details Seven nights' B&B, including flights and transfers, from £1,533 ( Do you have a favourite hotel in Croatia? Share it in the comments
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
US airports grind to a halt with massive flight delays
Published: | Updated: Departing flights are experiencing average delays of 135 minutes and climbing, while arrivals are running about 40 minutes behind schedule. JFK International Airport, the New York area's busiest airport with roughly 60 million travelers a year, has also imposed a ground stop until 4:00pm. Earlier today, departures averaged 149 minutes, but a current snapshot shows delays for 56 flights at about 56 minutes each, reflecting a slight improvement. Arrival operations remain heavily impacted, and the probability of extending the ground stop remains medium. LaGuardia Airport (LGA) is under a ground stop until 3:45pm, with departures currently delayed about 60 minutes and increasing. Earlier cumulative delays affected more than 700 flights, with an average of 120 minutes, and some flights were held up to 177 minutes. Travelers heading to the airports to pick up friends or family are urged to check flight statuses before leaving home and expect extended wait times. Airline officials continue to advise passengers to monitor real-time updates as the thunderstorms persist through the afternoon. Meteorologists said Wednesday that the tri-state area has a slightly upgraded risk for severe weather later in the day. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued an alert well ahead of the potential threat, upgrading it to the risk level for the region to 'marginal.' While still relatively low, severe isolated weather is possible. 'A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 8pm and 11pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 11pm,' the NWS said.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
What can Celtic learn from Aberdeen's Almaty trip?
It's the Champions League trip that Celtic had probably hoped to avoid.A short hop to Slovakia and back would have been easier - logistically, at least - than a round-trip of 7,000 miles to Kairat Almaty upset the odds on Tuesday to beat Slovan Bratislava on penalties and set up a play-off with first leg is in Glasgow next Wednesday but the return, six days later, is around 360 miles from the Dzungarian Gate border crossing into quickest flight time from London to Almaty is over eight hours. So when Celtic charter their plane, players and staff will be able to get through about four movies at least. And that's just the outward will be schlepping further east than Kabul in the week leading up to the first derby of the season at Ibrox. It's quite the trip, but the Champions League lucre at stake for Brendan Rodgers' men would make it all worthwhile. Tony Bennett's plane, Tallinn & steak dinners Should they need some advice, Aberdeen made the same journey on Europa League qualifying duty in 2015. And the Scotland men's national team also travelled to Kazakhstan in 2019, an ill-fated trip on which Alex McLeish's side lost 3-0. Speak to those at the Scottish FA about it and they make the logistics sound simple. "You fly there and back in a long-range Airbus or Boeing," one plane Aberdeen hired a decade ago might as well have had 'fly me to the moon' branded along the was - as a club insider recalled - different from the type they had used before for European away trips. Smaller, more luxurious. "I believe it was used by the singer Tony Bennett and other celebrities," they didn't go too well on the football side, though, Aberdeen losing 2-1 away before a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie. But that wasn't for a lack of attention to detail from then-manager Derek McInnes and assistant Tony Aberdeen squad - who stopped in Estonia on the way out and Turkey on the way back - had a steak dinner before flying out late on the Tuesday for a Thursday game. The idea was that they could sleep on the plane, rather than travelling during the day, and they also all stayed on UK time so as to be better equipped to handle their subsequent league game a few days McLean's late winner over Dundee United at Tannadice suggests they might have had the right idea. What can history tell us about Kazakh trips? Rodgers and Celtic's support staff will already have a plan in place for Kazakhstan. Not least given it's a trip which will go a long way to defining their season. They cannot leave anything to chance when it comes to getting in and out of Almaty as quickly and as safely as possible, while still giving the players the optimal conditions to both prepare for and recover from the gruelling trip. It's expected to be around 30 degrees when Celtic visit, although that's likely to drop to mid-20s around kick-off record against Kazakh opposition is good, although the club still await their first win in the former Soviet have never played Almaty before but have made the journey to Kazakhstan three times in the past decade or so. Shakhter Karagandy were beaten 3-2 on aggregate after a memorable night at Parkhead, featuring a late winner from James Forrest. Rodgers was in his first spell at the club when Celtic knocked Astana out of Europe in consecutive Northern Irishman won't want the copybook to be blotted now, for all sorts of reasons. He may not fly in the same plane Tony Bennett used, but he'll certainly want to avoid a trip down The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
