Treatment and Prevention of High Altitude Illness and Mountain Sickness

High altitude illness is used to describe various symptoms that can develop in unacclimatized persons on ascent to high altitude. Symptoms usually include headache, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, and sleep disturbance. In fact, high altitude illness comprises of acute mountain sickness (AMS) and its life threatening complications, high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) and high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). Since there are many travelers who visit high altitude locations these days, high altitude illness has become a public health problem. Therefore, physicians need to be familiar with the condition and be able to advise those who are going to reach high altitude how to prevent or minimize the illness and treat patients who suffer from it.