2: Get enough sleep. Late-night drinking and early morning buses are a toxic combination.

3: Get the right jabs and keep them up to date. Your chances of contracting (eg) typhoid are, admittedly, pretty low in many places. But many insurance providers won’t pay for treatment if you aren’t vaccinated. Travel injections are ultra-cheap in Asia, and far cheaper in Europe than in the US.

4: Use anti-malarials -– both a DEET-based repellent and a pharmaceutical such as Malarone or Doxycycline — but only if you are travelling in regions in which you are actually at risk of malaria.

Many capital cities and resort areas have eradicated malaria and the malaria mosquito is not found at altitude. See the NHS malaria map for country by country breakdowns of which areas are at risk and take the tablets for the recommended time before entering and after leaving the region.

5: Eat at busy places with a high food turnover and a regular clientele. Don’t eat anything cold that’s meant to be hot, or anything hot that’s meant to be cold.

6: Don’t sweat food hygiene. You’ll miss out on delicious street food and eating with locals, then the first time you hit a wet lettuce leaf you’ll be sick as a dog. Acclimatize your immune system to the local bacteria (good and bad) in stages.

7: Drink lots of clean water to make up for what you sweat out. Don’t drink unboiled or unsterilised mains water unless locals confirm it’s safe to drink (which it surprisingly often is).

8: Be ultra-cautious around natural remedies. There’s a common assumption that products sold as “natural” are safe and non-pharmaceutical. This eyeopening report by a pathologist shows quite how untrue this is of an industry often as greedy as and always less regulated than Big Pharma.

9: Clean cuts thoroughly and paint deep cuts with surgical alcohol or iodine. Cover deep cuts during the day and let them dry at night.

And, finally, and obviously – get travel insurance! It could save your life.

The post 9 Blindingly Obvious Ways To Stay Healthy Travelling the Tropics appeared first on EscapeArtistes.