Travel medical kit checklist
Use this checklist as a guide — you may need less or more, depending on the activities you may undertake, and the remoteness of the area you visit. Check with your doctor or travel clinic if you aren't sure what you may need to keep your travels safe and healthy.
- Analgesic (pain relief) medication such as paracetamol or aspirin.
- Antihistamine tablets for bites, stings or allergies.
- Antiseptic ointment to apply to a wound.
- Antiseptic solution for cleaning wounds or bites.
- Blister and wound patches, such as sticking plasters.
- Cold and flu tablets.
- Condoms.
- Diarrhoea medication, e.g. Imodium.
- Eye lubricant drops.
- Fluid and electrolyte replacement powder or tablets, e.g. Gastrolyte.
- Insect repellent containing DEET.
- Medical adhesive tape, e.g. Micropore.
- Motion sickness tablets.
- Multivitamin/mineral tablets if travelling for long periods to places where your diet may be lacking in essential nutrients.
- Regular prescription medications, which should be carried in your hand luggage when travelling. You should also take a copy of your prescriptions with you, written using the generic name of the drug to avoid confusion with trade names in foreign countries.
- Safety pins and scissors (you may not be allowed to carry these in your cabin luggage).
- Sting relief solution, e.g. Stingose.
- Sunscreen (at least SPF 15+).
- Thermometer (a forehead thermometer is best for travel as it doesn’t break or run out of batteries).
- Throat lozenges.
- Tweezers.
- Water purifying tablets.
- Wound dressings, e.g. a crepe bandage, gauze swabs and OpSite, and Steristrips, which can often take the place of stitches.
Prescription medications for travel-related conditions.
Travel to developing countries, remote areas, tropical climates and high altitudes increases your risk of certain conditions that you would not otherwise encounter at home or during travel to developed, temperate-climate countries. Many of these conditions are treated or avoided by taking prescription medications. So, apart from taking your regular prescription medications with you, as described above, your doctor may suggest some of the following medications.
- Altitude sickness medications.
- Antibiotics for certain intestinal infections or for serious respiratory infection.
- Malaria prevention tablets.
Last Reviewed: 02 March 2004
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