Travel Health Wilderness

Can you tell me a Good Book?

I frequently get asked about which books I advise people to read, to better prepare for travels and staying health. There are two books that I feel are fundamental for healthcare while traveling, exploring, hiking/camping.

First, I cannot say enough good things about Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine by Drs. P. Auerbach, H. Donner and E. Weis. ISBN: 0-323-01894-7.

The book is a companion to a much larger and more detailed text, Wilderness Medicine. This book does not sacrifice information for portability. Although it is small and easy to drop into a backpack, the text is filled with a range of good information.

Basic first-aid is discussed for a variety of issues ranging from altitude sickness to fish hook removal. The book also discusses travel related illnesses such as diarrhea/vomiting, infectious disease and vaccines/prevention for malaria, dengue, yellow fever and meningitis, to name a few.

Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine is written in easy to understand terms and contains many useful charts, making it suitable for those without a medical background. There are even a few sections on survival, knots, search and rescue and advice for making your own health kit.

Another excellent text on Travel Medicine can be found at Stuart Rose’s site: www.TravMed.com. In addition to having a lot of good products that travelers use, such as DEET sprays, travel health kits, etc. there is a wonderful resource there, as well. For free!

Under the tab “Travel Health Guide” is the free web-book that should be read by anybody who travels internationally. Discussing a range of travel medicine specific areas such as jet lag, vaccines, insect bite prevention, repatriation insurance and country specific information, this book is a gold mine of information.

These two books should provide most people with a thorough understanding of what to do and how to take care of yourself, traveling or in the wilderness.

If you have any other books to advise, let me know!

Adventure Doc

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: