The Surgery’s Health Advice for Travellers to Uganda:

The most common health problems for travellers to Uganda are not exotic tropical diseases. The most common causes of illness, injury, and death in travellers are cardiac disease and road traffic accidents. Therefore, older travellers: mind your stress levels and exertion if you have underlying cardiac disease. Younger travellers: wear your seatbelts and avoid motorcycle taxis (or at least wear a helmet). Motorcycle taxis (boda bodas) are a fun and convenient way to get through the traffic gridlock but they are also very effective femur-fracture machines. If you insist on using them make sure you have travel health insurance that includes air medevac.

Malaria is endemic throughout the country but the risk varies hugely as per your residential environment. Big, well screened houses on the tops of hills with few inhabitants are low risk, as are expensive air conditioned hotel rooms. Small houses in congested areas, hostels, low budget hotels, game parks, and the village hut, are high risk. Take your prescribed antimalarials and use your mossie net. When you take your antimalarials perfectly your risk for malaria disease is almost nil. Your risk goes up when (1) you don’t take your antimalarials correctly, or (2) you don’t take them at all. If you get a fever after you've been here for at least 10 days please call us for advice of what to do next -the emergency number is listed at the top of this webpage.

If you are here for the long-term and you are far upcountry and/or you are not taking malaria prophylaxis you should get malaria rapid test kits from us, and a demo of how to use them. When you are sick you can call us and we talk you through the testing procedure. Also have a treatment dose of Coartem in your first aid kit.

Yellow Fever – A few recorded cases of Yellow Fever have been found in Uganda in 2011, the first since the 1970's, but it is considered endemic by all authorities (WHO, CDC etc). Currently the actual individual risk to travellers is almost nil.

Yellow Fever vaccination is:
Not mandatory if entering from non-endemic countries (i.e. Europe, North America, Australia etc)
Required (with Yellow Book/certificate) for all travellers over 1 year of age if coming from any country with risk of yellow fever transmission.
Recommended by all travel medicine authorities for all travellers entering Uganda who are above the age of one year

All other vaccines – The following are the most important vaccinations for travellers to Uganda ... in this order:
Hepatitis A + B, typhoid and perhaps influenza, for the short term business-type traveller
Add to that: yellow fever, meningococcal, and rabies for the longer term, rural living, and/or low-budget traveller.

Schistosomiasis – All naturally occurring fresh water should be considered infected. Transmission is through intact skin that comes in contact with infected fresh water. Schistosomiasis has no prevention other than avoiding the water (swimming pools are ok!) There are many fun and exciting water sports in Uganda and if you participate in them know that there is a very good chance you will be infected (and yes this includes one-time white-water rafting). Most people infected with schistosomiasis do not feel unwell therefore the best advice is: make sure you take the treatment (Praziquantel) two months after your last water exposure (you can get the drugs from us and take them home with you). If you do feel unwell, see your doctor.

Travellers Diarrhea (TD) – This is the most common infectious problem for travellers in Uganda. Very few will escape unscathed. TD in Uganda ranges from mildly annoying diarrhea to raging incapacitating dysentery. Come with your Cipro/Norfen/Azithro and treat yourself if you have fever with diarrhea and/or vomiting. We don’t recommend Imodium. Be warned though - you may require medical attention (injectable antiemetics and intravenous rehydration), as our shigella is second to none! (Malaria should also be ruled out.) We have observed that adherence to the conventional food and water hygiene guidelines propagated to tourists does not help all that much for the overall prevention of TD. What this means is this: If you eat the roadside pork kebabs you most probably will get TD, and if you don’t eat them you still will most probably get TD.

Sex in Uganda – In one word (with emphasis) – risky! The prevalence of HIV in Uganda is currently (officially) at about 6%, and Hepatitis B even higher at an alarming 10%. Frankly speaking, many short and long-term travellers to Uganda participate in both planned and unplanned sex with locals. Be forewarned: Alcohol, drugs, the sunny climate, and the disinhibiting effect of travel all weaken one’s resolve when it comes to sex. The risks for the ultimately fatal infections of HIV and Hepatitis B/C cannot be overstated. Use condoms always: or better still, abstain. If you follow this advice you will thank us in the morning.

Need more info?? For clarification on any of the above points contact us by email or via this website.