Malaria, yellow fever, the routine jabs, and the small things that spoil a trip. What to discuss with your doctor or travel clinic, and when.
Tanzania is a safe country to travel in from a health point of view, provided you prepare properly. The preparation is not complicated. It is a visit to your doctor or a travel clinic six to eight weeks before you fly, a decision about malaria tablets, a few vaccinations, and some sensible habits on the trip.
This page explains what to raise at that appointment and what to expect on the ground. It is general information, not medical advice. The decisions belong with you and a medical professional who knows your history.
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Malaria is present across most of Tanzania, including the northern parks, the coast and Zanzibar. It is largely absent above about 1,800 metres, which means Arusha and the crater rim are lower risk and the mountain above the forest is not a malaria zone.
Most visitors are advised to take antimalarial tablets for the whole trip, and there are several types. Which one suits you depends on your health, your other medication and your route. That is the conversation to have with your doctor or a travel clinic. Do not decide from a website, including this one.
The tablets are half the protection. The other half is not being bitten. Long sleeves and trousers from dusk, repellent on exposed skin, and sleeping under the net that every camp provides. The mosquitoes that carry malaria bite in the evening and at night.
Tanzania requires a yellow fever vaccination certificate from travellers arriving from, or who have passed through, a country where yellow fever is present. It is checked at a health desk before immigration.
If you fly direct from Europe, North America or the Gulf, you do not normally need it. If your route passes through a yellow fever country, even for a long transit, you do. Check the current rule against your own itinerary.
The vaccination is a single injection, valid for life, and it must be given at least ten days before you travel to count. Carry the certificate with your passport.
The vaccinations commonly recommended for Tanzania are tetanus, hepatitis A and typhoid, on top of the routine childhood ones being up to date. Hepatitis B, rabies and others may be suggested depending on how long you are staying, what you are doing, and your own history.
Some need more than one dose spread over weeks, which is why the appointment should be six to eight weeks before you fly, not the week before.
Your doctor or a travel clinic will go through the current advice for your route. Take your itinerary with you, because a beach week, a mountain and a safari are not the same trip from a medical point of view.
Water. Drink bottled or treated water, and use it for brushing your teeth. Every camp provides it. Avoid ice unless you know it is made from treated water.
Food. Camp and lodge food is prepared carefully and is safe. In towns, hot, freshly cooked food is safe. Salads and cut fruit are the usual cause of trouble. Wash your hands or use sanitiser before every meal.
Sun. It is strong, all year, at every altitude. Sun cream, a hat and sunglasses are not optional.
Stomach upsets. Common, usually mild, usually over in a day or two. Rehydration sachets in your bag help. Tell your guide if it is worse than that.
Insects. Tsetse flies in some woodland bite in the day and are drawn to blue and black. Wear neutral colours.
Your regular medication, in its original packaging, with enough for the trip and a few days over. A copy of the prescription.
Antimalarials, if you are taking them, and a note of when to start and stop.
A small kit: painkillers, rehydration sachets, plasters, antiseptic, anti-diarrhoea tablets, antihistamine, insect repellent, sun cream, hand sanitiser.
Any inhalers, epipens or specific items you rely on. The parks have no pharmacies.
And your insurance details, on paper, with the emergency number.
Travel insurance with medical cover is not optional for Tanzania. The nearest good hospital can be a long way from a camp, and evacuation by road or air is expensive.
Check that the policy covers medical treatment abroad with a high limit, evacuation and repatriation, and the activities you are doing. If you are climbing Kilimanjaro it must cover trekking to 6,000 metres, and many ordinary policies do not.
Zanzibar requires its own arrival insurance, bought through a designated provider, on top of your own policy. Check the current rule before you fly.
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