Health and safety tip when travelling to India

In Indian sub continent the major risks to your health from mosquitoes are malaria, encephalitis, kala azar and dengue. Cover your arms and legs; use the repellent and in problem areas sleep under a mosquito net. Traveller’s diarrhoea is another running problem and year after year traveller after traveller gets the stomock upset.

More serious problem is the risk of contacting AIDS, Hepatitis B and other sexually transmitted diseases.

For climbers and mountaineers: look out for symptoms of altitude sickness/acute mountain sickness. If you ascend above 3500meters too fast you might feel nauseous, sleepless, and your head may ache. Also carry sunscreen with minimum SPF 20 to escape sunburn.

The quality of health services is very uneven . Urban cities, particularly metros, have good hospitals, well stocked late night/all night chemists, highly competent doctors and top of the line medical services. Conversely, rural and semi-rural areas have very limited facilities. Stick to the larger cities if you are anticipating trouble. Medicines are fairly cheap in India.
Travellers from yellow fever areas are required to have an inoculation certificate. Prior inoculation for poliomyelitis is recommended.

Safety
Areas that may be avoided are Bihar,Jammu & Kashmir and parts of the Northeast, which in any case have restricted tourist activity. Cases of mugging, theft and worse are frequent.


Few precaution you may consider:

Keep several photocopies of your passport, insurance, travellers’ cheques etc. scattered through your luggage,


Do not put all your money in one place,

Be extremely alert in the dark.

Many women travellers wear the long tunic and loose pyjama dress of Indian women called the salwar-kameez and find that it substantially dissuades unwanted male attention.


If you are travelling alone, do not tell others.


If you lose your passport lodge a First Information Report at the local police station and contact your embassy.If local police people misbehave or does not listen best is to talk higher officer or contact your embassy and then action happen fast.