Health Information - Medicine/What to bring

Medicines you may need:
•The prescription medicines you take every day. Make sure you have enough to last during your trip. Keep them in their original prescription bottles and always in your carry-on luggage. Be sure to follow security guidelines, if the medicines are liquids.
•Medicine for diarrhea, usually over-the-counter. Recommended - Pepto-bismol isolates the bugs that cause stomach problems, and then you flush it out of your system. If you use something like Imodium for diarrhea, it only suppresses it. Then it leaves the cause for the diarrhea in your system.

Other items you may need:
•Sunblock and sunglasses for protection from harmful effects of UV sun rays. See Skin Cancer Questions and Answers for more information.
•Antibacterial hand wipes or alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol.
•To prevent insect/mosquito bites, bring:
o Lightweight long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and a hat to wear outside, whenever possible.
o Flying-insect spray to help clear rooms of mosquitoes. The product should contain a pyrethroid insecticide; these insecticides quickly kill flying insects, including mosquitoes.

Many diseases, like dengue, are spread through insect bites. One of the best protections is to prevent insect bites by:
•Using insect repellent (bug spray) with 30%-50% DEET. Picaridin, available in 7% and 15% concentrations, needs more frequent application. There is less information available on how effective picaridin is at protecting against all of the types of mosquitoes that transmit malaria.