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Lady Gaga Almost Suffers Deep Vein Thrombosis on Transatlantic Flight
Update: If you want to see pictures of exactly what Gaga was wearing on the plane, click here.
Pop star Lady Gaga is notorious for her outlandish sense of style, but dramatic shoes and avant garde outfits were almost her downfall this week when the singer showed early stages of the potentially deadly deep vein thrombosis condition while on a transatlantic flight.
Gaga suffered from swelling in her legs on the flight, due to the most outrageous in-flight fashion we've ever heard of. She donned the infamous "Armadillo" shoes by recently deceased British designer Alexander McQueen and dressed in a black and yellow tape ensemble like the one pictured above from her upcoming Telephone single.
The flight attendants (airline sadly unknown), became greatly concerned with her condition and eventually convinced Gaga to change her clothes into something less restricting. But before she could strip, she had to get help to undo her outfit, it was that complex. Perhaps one of the other celebs on her flight came to her rescue? Also on board were P. Diddy, Peaches Geldoff and Liam Gallagher.
Related Stories:
· Lady Gaga's Outfit Causes Health Concern on Plane [Shinystyle]
· Celeb Travel [Jaunted]
[Photo: TwitPic]
Tags: Weird Travel / Travel Health / Air Transat / Stupid Ideas / → All Tags
Man Sues Airline Because Flight Attendants Wouldn't Check Out His Scrotum
Hey men, next time you fly with Canada's Air Transat, you might want to wear a cup over your junk, because if something happens to the family jewels while in flight, they will not be helping you out with your medical issues.
You see, a peculiar incident happened on a recent Air Transat flight between Montreal and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when a male passenger in business class has some sort of accident with his scrotum, that caused some bleeding and pain. He panicked and asked the flight crew to look at his scrotum, as it was a medical emergency of sorts. Well, they understandably wouldn't, and instead handed him sanitary towels because they aren't freaking doctors.
It just gets better after the jump!
Tags: Swine Flu / H1N1 / Travel News / Travel Health / → All Tags
Is Swine Flu Still a Threat To Travelers?
When we roundly mocked H1N1 hysteria last year, we insinuated that it was a conspiracy being waged by US tourism companies. While probably true, that picture was also likely incomplete. Turns out, big pharmaceutical companies were also at least partly to blame. All the rest of what we said—especially the parts about how swine flu is less dangerous than ordinary flu—that turns out to be absolutely true. Seriously. You can check out the newest findings. Absolutely true.
We really don't mean to sound Pollyannaish about this. Swine flu killed a bunch of people. But the sheer panic—from China quarantining travelers to Mexico calling off Cinco de Mayo—was just silly. Business travelers, who have a stake in evaluating the risk of infection vs. the risk of missing a deal, never paid it much attention. But many tourism destinations were devastated, and they didn't have to be.
Tags: Travel Snapshot / Virgin America / Travel Health / → All Tags
Mood Lighting Not Helping You Relax? Then Order Pain Relievers Off The Seatback TV
We've often wondered what we would do if we ever had a nasty headache strike during the middle of a flight and did not have our own Advil arsenal with us. We guess we could beg the flight attendants to give us some of their own stash (which we think might be illegal on their part) or we could ask our fellow seatmates, risking violations of seatmate etiquette.
But on Virgin America, they've taken care of that problem. We just discovered on our flight last night from FLL to LAX that the RED system offers headache, pain and sleeping pills from the brand Help, I Need Help for $4 each. Each packet contains 16 tablets. Not bad.
The pain relievers are located under the SHOP section of RED. Now if only they would offer "Help, I Need the Person Behind Me to Stop Poking The Seatback TV So Hard" pills.
Related Stories:
· Virgin America coverage [Jaunted]
· Travel Health coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Cruise Travel / Travel Health / Cunard / Ships / Norovirus / → All Tags
It's Officially Norovirus Season Aboard Cruise Ships
With travelers heading south for the winter and hopping aboard much-anticpated cruises where they eat at communal buffets and are trapped in the same boat as thousands of others, it's no wonder that Norovirus is popping up in the news again. Most recently, the stomach bug hit Cunard Line's massive Queen Victoria while she was off sailing an eight-night transatlantic voyage from Southhampton to New York.
Because the United States has a policy that bars ships from entering a US post if the passengers with Norovirus go over 15% of the ship's populations—an epidemic level&#!51;fears were high on the Queen Victoria that she wouldn't be allowed to dock. However, CruiseCritic reports that only 163 passengers came down with it, equalling "8.7 percent of the 1,874 passengers onboard."
Tags: Travel Health / H1N1 / Swine Flu / Travel News / → All Tags
What Are the Odds You'll Catch Swine Flu on Your Next Flight?
We just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a happy National Influenza Vaccination Week. To celebrate, we’re letting you know about the latest findings from smarty-pants scientists. They have figured out some kind of formula to determine how exactly the H1N1 virus can spread in a plane during a transatlantic flight. Everything really depends on the length of the flight, but for the most part, two to 17 people could be infected from just one sick passenger.
In case you want to run your own test studies, researchers at UCLA used the Wells-Riley equation. Apparently this is the standard when it comes to figuring out the extent of outbreaks in enclosed environments. It considers the number of people exposed, respiratory rates, and the concentration of the virus over time. Interesting information, but we’re probably going to leave all the calculations up to the experts.
Why coach passengers are doomed, after the jump.
Tags: Travel Health / Airport News / Airline Food / DEN / Airline News / Airport Food / → All Tags
Denver Airport Receives Warning For 'Roaches Too Numerous To Count'
Every big airport has a series of kitchens where food is prepared for the major airlines. At Denver International Airport, those kitchens are currently operated by German company LSG Sky Chefs. How much longer the company will have their contract is an open question, since apparently their Denver facilities are roughly as hygienic as an unrefrigerated Calcutta food truck in the middle of summer flooded with stagnant monsoon water from two years before.
The controversy began when the FDA, after an inspection of the kitchens, sent a warning letter to LSG Sky Chefs. That letter outlined a diversity of health code violations, going on for about 15 paragraphs and stretching over 1,000 words. That's four to six blog posts worth of disgusting disgustingness, all describing food that literally millions of people have consumed.
Tags: Travel Health / Disease / In-Flight Comfort / Airplanes / Lists / → All Tags
The Top Ten Gross Things People Do On Airplanes
We all know about the rare instances of airline passenger misconduct that make it to the headlines, like the case of the naked, angry flyer or the fighting Lohan, but every day little instances of pure gross occur unnoticed or just unreported.
Perhaps you've spotted someone getting a little too frisky beneath their $5 on-board purchase blanket or going about some hygienic business, but chances are you haven't seen all Top Ten Gross Things People Do On Airplanes:
10. Browse dating websites over the in-flight WiFi
We know that having in-flight WiFi is new and great and magical, but it's best to keep your private profile and your preferences for "18/F/Asian" private. Even if it's something as innocuous as passing the time on HotorNot.com, just remember that you're not the only one who can see your computer screen, and we bet everyone else that can is secretly laughing at you.
Tags: Medical Travel / Travel Health / Ghana Travel / Africa Travel / → All Tags
Medical Tourism Booms In Ghana, Of All Places
The west African country of Ghana hasn't been too high up on our list of wanna-visits, although its position improved a lot when we heard Ghana is the second highest producer of cocoa - maybe that chocolate bar we just downed came out of Ghana. Anyway, Ghana is actually going for a different target now: the health tourist.
It turns out that quite a lot of Ghanaians get medical degrees overseas, and one way of enticing them back to Ghana has been to open a bunch of top-class medical clinics. Sadly, of course, the average Ghanaian citizen can't afford to visit such a clinic—but a tourist can, and for a normal tourist, the prices are bargain basement while the care is excellent.
Cosmetic surgery is high on the list of tourist-wants, although simpler treatments like massages and detox are popular too. So far, the foreign visitors seem to be mostly the wealthy from other African countries, but when celebrities start getting boob-jobs in Ghana, you can say that you read it here first.
Related Stories:
· Ghana Targets Health Tourism Boom [BBC]
· Ghana Travel Guide [Jaunted]
[Photo: bagaball]
Tags: Open Threads / Swine Flu / Travel Health / H1N1 / → All Tags
Have You Encountered Swine Flu In Your Travels This Year?
'Tis the year of the Swine Flu and things just haven't died down like we'd hoped they would. Now that the intense and occasionally fatal flu has affected everyone from D-List celebs to former All-You-Can-Jetters, it's apparent that it's not going anywhere anytime soon—or rather, it's going everywhere.
So we want to know: what's been your experience with Swine Flu this year? Have you taken to wearing face masks on flights and in subways or do you scrunch up your nose at those who do? Have you gotten and survived Swine Flu? Has anyone you know been under the weather with it, and if so, where do you think they go it? We're just wondering exactly how prevalent it is in places of travel, versus say at restaurants and in your local bowling alley. Or has your bowling alley had its balls sanitized? Hmm??
Let us know your travel Swine Flu experience in the comments!
Related Stories:
· Swine Fly Now Attacking D-List Celebs In Addition To Air Travelers [Jaunted]
· Is Swine Fly Hysteria A US Tourism Conspiracy? [Jaunted]
· Swine Fly Has A Grip On Every Country Except Antarctica [Jaunted]
· Travel Health coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: OhLaLa Mag]
Tags: Travel Health / Travel News / Barack Obama / → All Tags
'With Liberty And Travel For All'; Obama Lifts HIV Travel Ban
Although the travel health focus right now is on the Swine Flu, it's nonetheless important to remember that Swine Flu isn't the end-all, be-all of dangerous diseases right now. After all, millions of people in the world don't have it, unlike HIV and AIDS. Up until this weekend, those with HIV were banned from traveling to the United States due to an archaic law which was just lifted by Obama in response to a UNAIDS request for all countries to end such discriminatory travel bans: "Placing travel restrictions on people living with HIV has no public health justification. It is also a violation of human rights," said UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.
Although the ban won't be fully lifted until next year, those who have HIV and haven't been able to visit the US and make their dreams come true of going to Graceland and eating a slice of New York pizza now can start booking their flights.
Tags: Germs / Travel Gear / Travel Gadgets / Stupid Ideas / Travel Health / → All Tags
What Type Of Traveler Packs A Hand-Held UV Germ Scanner?
If you love getting out of the house but hate the "other people exist" part of traveling, there are a number of things you can do. Our recommendation is an mp3 player and a really good set of noise-canceling headphones. Failing that, books and earplugs work pretty well on airplanes. But there are certain parts of the world where interacting with other people's germs is unavoidable. Getting rid of all of them is impossible, you know.
But that isn't stopping travel companies from marketing hand-held UV lights, like the $79 Nano-UV Scanner, to germphobic travelers. There's a well-defined and well-justified use for UV bulbs in disinfecting water when you're camping—though there are easier ways and you better know what you're doing—but campers aren't the ones being targeted here:
