About the author
Holger is a management consultant turned volunteer. He loves to take pictures, run around in the sun, dive and he has never met a beer in his life he didn't like.
More posts by Holger
Vaccinations
Yesterday we had an appoinrtment with a specialist for tropical disease and inoculation. We’re both still pretty flu-shaken, but we still went for a prep talk.
Here’s what we need for Belize:
I knew the guy from 2003 when I was about to embark on 6 months of backpacking through South-America. Back then he gave me a huge and scary talk on the various ways of dying in the jungle. It was way more pleasent this time around – appearently most risks are connected to the way you live, i.e. a backpacking hippie-punk looking forward to sleep on beaches seems to be more at risk than an all grown-up (haha) couple looking to sleep in cabanas.
He also said that the one thing I had been worried about the most, Chagas disease transmitted by the Kissing Bug is a “real rarity” in Belize. Phew ….
So, we’ll start our series of shots in April and should be fine.
Med pack
What we forgot to ask (and we’ll make sure to do that next time) is: what to pack in the 1st aid kit?
Besides the regular stuff I remember from 2003 that it was recommended to bring your own siringes with you and insist they use those because in remote areas due to lack of supplies, siringes might be re-used. Not good.
I’ll post a med pack list here sometime in the future as soon as i have a somewhat comprehensive list together.
First Aid Course
One thing we decided on friday is: we’ll refresh our first aid kung fu before we leave.
We decided this after waiting for 3 hours in the ER for a 3 minute treatment. Kerstin had landed on the pavement eyebrow-first right outside our front door after fainting thanks to that stupid flu we have. And even though I think we handled the situation pretty well (1st aid, check on vital functions, walk home, clean wound) we still went to the ER to have them look at the cut. A luxury we wouldn’t necessarily have (or have needed, in hindsight) next year. So in order to feel more confident in a situation like this we’ll take a 1st aid course before we leave. (Which will also help with me going from Rescue Diver to Divemaster).