Packing List - Health Kit - Page 1
A well-stocked health kit is an essential travel gear item. While you can go out and purchase all of the items yourself and make your own medical kit, we do not recommend this from a logistical or cost standpoint. It will cost you significantly more in time and money to go and buy all of the items you will need and you will be forced to buy most items in larger quantities than you will need.
Buying a pre-packaged medical kit from a company that specializes in putting health kits together is the most effective way to go from a cost and time standpoint. For medical kits, we recommend those created by Adventure Medical Kits and available from Travel Medicine. They have several different kits based on your needs. Additionally, every kit comes with the outstanding and compact book A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine by Eric A. Weiss, M.D. For its small size, the book is invaluable for diagnosing all of the common health issues for travelers and backpackers.
If you still decide to make your own health kit, listed on the next page are the most important things to include according to the CDC. Some of the items such as prescription drugs will need to be obtained from a doctor. Always keep prescription drugs in their original bottles and have an accompanying note from a licensed physician on letterhead stationary from the hospital or travel clinic. You don’t want to spend hours being interrogated for trying to carry an unmarked controlled substance across an international border.
If you’re going to be visiting any developing countries, it is definitely recommended that you bring a supply of sterile syringes and sutures. Even with all of the global awareness about HIV/AIDS, syringes have been known to be re-used in some parts of the world due to cost and lack of availability. Better to be safe than sorry. You will also need a doctor’s letter for these as well.