Mandatory contents for your travel first aid kit

Illness is the last thing you want when you’re on vacation. But it’s easy to pick up minor wounds such as a cut caused by a seashell on the beach or a graze you get when climbing. It’s better not to have to look for a pharmacy in a place you don’t know – assuming there is one. 

Put together your travel first aid kit in good time. Remember first of all to take a sufficient amount of your personal medicaments – they may be hard to get hold of abroad. The basic components of a travel first aid kit are the same as for a home first aid kit – but they may have to be adapted to your destination:

  • Tweezers
  • Disinfectant
  • Dressings:
    • Gauze compresses
    • Bandage scissors
    • Plasters and bandages
    • Elastic roll plaster for securing
    • Triangular bandage
  • A breakable thermometer made of glass is unsuitable
  • In regions where yellow fever and dengue fever occur, blood-thinning painkillers are unsuitable – acetaminophen is better.
  • Medicine to treat travel sickness
  • Medicine to treat diarrhea, such as loperamide
  • Sun cream
  • Insect repellent – especially important in risk areas. The active ingredient DEET is recommended.
  • Malaria tablets
  • In remote areas you may need syringes, cannulas, and infusion sets