Healthy Travel in Africa

One important topic, Healthy Travel in Africa, is something that all travelers should read at least the bare minimums about before taking off. And two important sub-categories are Travel Immunizations for Africa and How to Travel Healthy. I remember that I had a whole variety of shots and drinks (sounds like a party, but I am talking about immunizations) before going to Africa, and you should probably consider to do the same thing. So here I’ll try to list the essentials and then direct you to the more thorough sites if you feel like being even more prepared!

Tips to Healthy Travel in Africa

• Drinking Water: Find out beforehand if you can drink the tap water in the area where you are traveling. Some places it’s safe, like in Cape Town, but other places it’s almost guaranteed to make you sick! And unfortunately you can’t always ask the locals, because they grew up drinking the water and may therefore be immune germs that will make you sick. However, if you’re using a good water purifier (like the SteriPen) you can drink from any water source you would like to!
• STD’s and HIV/AIDS are prevalent everywhere in Africa (as in the rest of the world), and I am sure you know how to avoid them.
• Swimming in freshwater, especially in inland Africa, can sometimes be like asking for parasites to invade your body. But I know it is tempting to dive into the fresh looking pond of water you found after hours of hiking through the jungle. And honestly; I’m not saying that you should never do that, I’m just saying that you should be aware of the risk.
• Traveler’s Diarrhea is something you can not guard yourself against, no matter how careful you are. My experience is that it seems impossible to predict what will make you sick. Those few times it has happened to me, it was from eating at nice places (like big safari resorts in Kenya). And I can’t remember to have ever gotten sick from eating at sketchy street stalls that looked like a traveler’s diarrhea heaven. So I don’t know what to say about this. Just don’t worry too much (I know
  it’s hard), dare to try new and unknown food while avoiding the dirtiest and least appetizing places. If you do get sick, stay in your room (or bathroom) and drink lots of water and maybe also take some Imodium or other medicine. And use common sense, if it get’s crazy you see a doctor.
• Malaria can ruin any trip and is also a life threatening disease, so take it seriously. Find out ahead if your destination is in a Malaria zone, and start taking medicines 4-6 weeks before you go there. There are no perfect vaccine against Malaria, and whatever you’re taking you will have to make other precautions as well. Use mosquito repellent (DEET is the best active ingredient), mosquito nets and long sleeved clothes to avoid being an easy target.

Travel Immunizations for Africa

Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a huge amount of information about Travel Immunizations for Africa. Just click the country you are traveling to and they will provide general health advice and a list of all the immunizations that are recommended or required for that specific country. And since they offer such great information on their sites, I won’t go in more detail here. A lot of people dislike immunizations, but I highly recommend that anyone traveling to Africa should look up their destination country and find out if there are any immunizations that are just plain stupid not to get.

For more advice from travel consultants you can check out this blog post on World Nomads about Recommended Immunizations for Africa.