Wilderness acquired diarrhea (WAD), wilderness-acquired diarrhea, wilderness diarrhea, or backcountry diarrhea, is diarrhea that is caused by pathogens that have infected people when they were in the wilderness. It is a much-discussed hazard among backpackers, hikers, campers and other outdoor recreationalists who visit remote areas of the developed world. Risk factors include insufficient washing of hands and food utensils and, to a lesser extent, drinking untreated surface water. Cases of WAD tend to be self-limited and the specific cause (microbe) is most often never known. Based on both systematic and less formal reviews of epidemiologic data and literature, various medical and public health researchers who have studied the topic believe that the risks of WAD have been over-stated and are poorly understood by the public.
Read more about Wilderness Acquired Diarrhea: Names and Definitions, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prevention, Epidemiology
Famous quotes containing the words wilderness and/or acquired:
“It is surprising on stepping ashore anywhere into this unbroken wilderness to see so often, at least within a few rods of the river, the marks of an axe, made by lumberers who have either camped here or driven logs past in previous springs. You will see perchance where, going on the same errand that you do, they have cut large chips from a tall white pine stump for their fire.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Indeed, the best books have a use, like sticks and stones, which is above or beside their design, not anticipated in the preface, not concluded in the appendix. Even Virgil’s poetry serves a very different use to me today from what it did to his contemporaries. It has often an acquired and accidental value merely, proving that man is still man in the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)