Maintaining Your Own Health on Deployment

Listen to the health and security briefing

The most important health advice on a mission is often local, current and specific. Your organisation’s security focal point, medical adviser, health coordinator, WASH lead, logistics team, line manager and experienced local colleagues may know things that no public travel page can tell you.

Follow instructions to the letter. If you are told not to drink from a water source, not to walk after dark, not to touch animals, not to use a route, not to eat from a certain place, not to travel alone or not to attend a site without clearance, treat that as a health instruction as well as a security instruction.

Briefings are based on local incidents, clinic access, evacuation routes, disease alerts, road conditions, security analysis, accommodation quality, vehicle availability and duty-of-care procedures. Ignoring them can put you, your colleagues and local partners at risk.

Food, water and stomach illness

Diarrhoea, dysentery, vomiting and dehydration can stop an aid worker from functioning within hours. In some places, unsafe water and poor sanitation are among the biggest daily health risks.

Use the water source approved by your organisation or accommodation. If you are told to use bottled, filtered, boiled, chlorinated or otherwise treated water, do it every time. Remember that ice, salad washing, tooth brushing and re-used bottles can also expose you.

Practical habits

• Wash hands with soap after toilets and before eating.
• Use alcohol hand rub when soap and safe water are not available.
• Drink only approved water sources.
• Avoid ice unless you know it was made from safe water.
• Choose food that is cooked thoroughly and served hot.
• Be careful with raw salad, unpeeled fruit, street food and buffets in hot climates.
• Keep oral rehydration salts available.
• Report blood in stool, fever, severe pain or persistent diarrhoea early.

Animals, scratches and rabies

Avoid dogs, cats, monkeys, bats and other mammals. A small bite, scratch or lick on broken skin can become a serious medical exposure in rabies-risk countries.

Do not pet animals, rescue animals, feed animals, play with puppies, pick up injured animals or assume a friendly animal is safe. Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear, but vaccination and urgent post-exposure care can prevent it when given in time.

If bitten or scratched

• Wash the wound immediately with soap and running water for at least 15 minutes if possible.
• Apply an appropriate disinfectant if available.
• Report the exposure to your manager and medical focal point.
• Seek urgent medical advice about rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.
• Do not wait to see whether the wound looks serious.

Mental health and burnout

Aid work can expose you to distress, grief, moral pressure, insecurity, long hours, organisational frustration and repeated stories of harm. Mental health is not separate from operational performance.

Burnout often develops quietly: irritability, cynicism, numbness, loss of empathy, poor sleep, risk-taking, isolation, errors, overwork, anger, guilt or feeling that you alone must hold the response together.

Protective actions

• Use supervision and peer support before crisis point.
• Keep some contact with people outside the mission.
• Take rest days and leave when available.
• Do not use alcohol or substances to manage trauma or sleep.
• Separate urgency from constant availability.
• Ask for support after critical incidents.
• Raise workload concerns early and specifically.

Exercise and movement

Movement helps sleep, stress regulation, circulation, strength and mood. In insecure or restricted environments, exercise may need to be modest and private.

Do not ignore security rules to exercise. If walking, running or gyms are not safe, use low-profile options in accommodation: stretching, bodyweight exercises, mobility work, resistance bands or short indoor routines.

Sexual health, boundaries and safeguarding

Humanitarian settings involve power imbalances, stress, isolation and vulnerability. Protecting health also means protecting boundaries, consent, dignity and safeguarding standards.

• Follow your organisation’s safeguarding and sexual misconduct rules.
• Do not enter relationships that exploit power, dependency or vulnerability.
• Carry condoms if sexual activity is possible.
• Seek urgent medical advice after sexual assault, exposure risk or condom failure.
• Know the pathway for post-exposure prophylaxis where relevant.
• Report safeguarding concerns through the correct channel.

After deployment

Health monitoring does not end when you leave the field. Some infections, stress reactions and adjustment difficulties appear after return.

• Complete any post-travel medical screening required by your organisation.
• Seek medical advice for fever, diarrhoea, weight loss, rash or unusual symptoms after return.
• Tell clinicians where you have travelled and what work you did.
• Continue malaria medication after travel if prescribed.
• Use decompression time if available.
• Watch for re-entry stress, irritability, numbness or sleep problems.
• Record lessons for your next deployment.