Ask Dr Miriam

QI’m taking my family on an African safari. What precautions should we take to stay well?

A lot of people are heading off to more and more exotic destinations. Exotic they may be – but they’re not always up to Western health and safety standards.

Besides tickets, passports, visas, and travel insurance, it’s worth giving some thought and attention to staying healthy while on holiday.

For your peace of mind when travelling abroad, assemble a first-aid kit containing lots of sunscreen, insect repellent with 20% or more of DEET, and a

Avariety of dressings, blister remedies and bandages, motion sickness tablets, and an antacid for indigestion. Drink only bottled water. You need to also make sure you’re up to date with your routine vaccinations — MMR, chickenpox, diphtheriatetanus-pertussis, polio and the flu jab.

Also make sure you’ve ticked off hepatitis A, typhoid and any special vaccination recommendations for the countries you intend to visit, not forgetting the need for malaria prevention.

The NHS website can help you with this (nhs.uk/conditions/ travel-vaccinations).