Microsoft word - medical kit summary.docx

Introduction  
We (Nick & Vicki) have just spent 1 year travel ing overland in a Land Rover in Africa and wanted to share with you our medical / health care tips.   Hygiene & Basics  
Two overriding issues you have to think about are clean drinking water and basic body hygiene. Bugs love Africa!!! We used a charcoal / ceramic water filter and filtered all water we consumed orally. We never got seriously il and only had a couple episodes of "50:50" number 2 action. We also washed our hands and tried to have flannel washes when water was low or no showers were handy (that's quite often in Africa). Bottom line, keep clean and drink clean water and you minimise a lot of problems. Also, if you cut yourself, clean it and treat it quickly with Savlon or Savlon spray. Cover up feet, ankles and arms in the evening. We only used DEET on our clothing and tried to avoid spraying it on our skin.   Injections  
We also had al our jabs done wel in advance - we had approx' 7 visits to the local clinic in the UK. Visit your GP and chat with the nurse. They have access to MASTA and can advise what you need based on your route. You wil need Yellow fever certificate and a list of the jabs you have had, it does get asked for in Africa, esp. Nigeria!!   Reading  
We took the Lonely Planet pocket health book, a VERY good buy and it helps give
you a second opinion if you are a solo traveller. It’s small enough to pack in a bike
too. We looked at this a lot!
 
What medical kit did we take?  
We have listed the main items we took. They were packable into 3 small bags (pictured). We kept a basic kit in the front cab and the smal er medical kits were kept in the shade / cool part of the vehicle. We kept our malaria pil s, text kits in the fridge. We have tried to indicate the frequency of usage too as a rough guide.   Doxycyclin tablets Malaria prophylaxis - used daily   Malarone tablets Malaria treatment (4 Tablets in one dose for 3 days) - not used   Canesten / Clotrimazole cream Topical cream for vaginal / skin fungal infections - used   Vagisil cream Treatment for vaginal irritation - not used   ASPAR / Hayleve antihistamine tablets Treatments for hay fever & allergies - used   Hydrocortisone / Eurax Topical cream for non infected itchy skin rashes - used   Mycil / Daktarin cream & Daktarin Powder Anti fungal treatment for athlete’s foot - used   Chloramphenicol antibiotic ointment Infected eyes / bacterial conjunctivitis treatment - not used   Safyr Bleu Eye irritation liquid drop treatment - used   Savlon Pavidone spray Treatment of skin wounds, abrasions - used this a lot!   Sodium Chloride solution ampules Washing of smal wounds - used   Cetrimide / Germolene / Savlon antiseptic creams Treatment of minor cuts - used this a lot   Calamine cream Treatment of sunburn & windburn - used   Ibuprofen tablets Musculo skeletal pain relief / anti-inflammatory - used a lot   Paracetamol tablets General pain relief / headaches - used   Lemsip powders Treatment for flu - used   Friars Balsam liquid, Sudafed tablets, Strepsil sweets Treatments of colds / cold decongestion - used the latter   Senokot tablets (laxative) Treatment for constipation - not used   Normalone / Imodium tablets Antidiarrhoel treatment - used once   Electrolade powders sachets Rehydration treatment - used several times   Haemorrhoid suppositories Treatment of haemorrhoids / pain relief - used once   Bisodol (tablets) Antacid treatment - used   Aquatabs tablets Emergency water treatment - not used   DEET - used sparingly and generally on clothing     Medical Hardware

NOMAD Sterile kits x 3 - used some items from these kits Malaria near Patient Test Kits - used once for another person Tapes (various) - used• Antiseptic wipes (various) - used Plasters, bandages & burn dressings (Various) - used Steri-strip wound closures (various) - not used Thermometer - used• Safety pins - used Blood donor cards - reference only BUT good to know your blood group What conditions did we get?
On the whole we only had minor complaints that were easily treatable:
Thrush, blisters, sunburn, athlete’s foot, headaches, dehydration, flu, 1x skin infection from mossie
bite, a few boils, 1x haemorrhoid (old age). We both suffered from sun sensitivity from using
Doxycyclin tablets. This was worse at the equator.
What extra medicine did we need?
We bought some Cyprofloxicin (for treating skin infections) in Mali. Easily obtainable and good for
treating infected bites and boils.
Nick & Vicki
www.langebaan-sunset.com
Stonehenge to Cape Town 2010/11
 

Source: http://www.langebaan-sunset.com/resources/medical+kit+summary.pdf