Maren & Kirk

Health & Security Issues

Just to let you know, We are not doctors, nurses or anything similar. This is just our knowledge we have gained through reading books, speaking to doctors, and checking out websites. We fully recommend that you research this topic and ask your physician or local health organization.

Vaccinations

- Polio, Diphterie and Tetanus which everyone should have, valid for 10 years, paid by the Health Insurance Company (in Germany)

- Hepatitis A+B, valid 10 years if you got 3 shots, costs each shot DM 117,- (total DM 351,-)

- Yellow Fever, valid 10 years, only allowed by the Department of Health, costs DM 51,-

- Typhus, valid 3 years, costs DM 54,-

- We did not get vaccinations for Cholera, Meningokokken-Meningitis and Tollwut

Medicine

- Eye drops, about 50 one way tubes

- Antibiotics

- Imodium capsules

- Paracetamol, painkillers

- Paspertin, for stomach problems

- Malaria Pills ( Lariam and Resochin)

- Aciclovir, against Herpes

- Soventol Gel, against mosquito bites

- Needles

- Bandages

Preparation

- We took an advance first aid course November

- Checked for information on the Web

- Read or skimmed a few books on First Aid and different kind of diseases

- Asked our Doctors for advice

- Both of us found out our blood type.

Security Preparation

- We each got 2 passports. Kirk's second passport is good for 2 years and Maren's second passport is good for 1 year. There are 2 reasons for the second passport. The first is if we loose one passport we have a reserve. The second is when entering or trying to get a visa for many countries, they will not except you if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport

- We copied and scanned all of our important documents that we could loose or get stolen during the trip. This included, passports, credit and ATM cards, vaccination book, student identity cards, and drivers licenses. We each took a copy of the other ones passport. We also left an copy of everything by family members.

- Kirk got an international drivers license.

- Found out which countries we needed visas from and how to get them on the road.

- The digital camera and notebook, it will always be by one of us, they are too much of a risk to loose. We could not do this website without them.