The Travel Drugs of a Pharmacy Student

This past month we have had several lectures on travel medicine including the risks involved and the precautions you should take, making it a little harder for us to be naive while preparing for our trips this time. Normally on most trips I go on, I bring few to no medications along with me but after those lectures and since I will be spending around 4 weeks with the same 36 people pretty much all day I figured my risk of getting ill is going to be a lot higher than normal. Needless to say I have definitely overpacked in the drug department for this trip!

Luckily for Mel and I, due to our program at school we are updated in all of the most common vaccines and do not have to worry about those before our trips. For Europe, I do not require any extra vaccines but risks are different in all parts of the world so for Mel and her trip to Asia she was required to get a few more. This is why is it always important to talk to a travel pharmacist or a doctor before going abroad to figure out what you may need to get. In Alberta, travel pharmacists are a great resource because many of them are able to prescribe and inject, so they can inform you of any risks, prescribe you any medications or injections you may need, and give you the injections all in the same meeting (that's all for my little plug about pharmacists :) ).

This trip I'm bringing:

• Pepto-Bismol tabs-this is great for prevention and treatment of travellers diarrhea
• Loperamide- just in case I get traveller's diarrhea
• Gravol

This trip isn't really high risk for traveller's diarrhea but I didn't want to risk it, as well, as I said above with so many of us in close contact for such a long period of time there's a high likelihood the flu will be getting passed around us. For people on more of a high risk trip like Melissa you may need to even get antibiotics that are specifically sensitive for traveller's diarrhea in the area you are travelling.

• Purell and Zinc tablets-so I can hopefully avoid any colds getting passed around
• Reactine and a few other prescription meds-it will be spring time in Europe and I get horrible congestion and headaches from allergies so I couldn't forget my antihistamine pills
• Decongestant Nasal Spray-this is probably the only drug on this entire list that I bring on every single trip I go on. If you have a cold or allergies there is nothing worse than having a nose so congested that you cannot sleep. 
• Hydrocortisone Cream 2.5%-this is my leftover tube from Mexico hence the Spanish (In Canada you can only get 0.5% without a prescription). Every beach holiday I get either a reaction to something in the tidal pools or sandfly bites on my feet and get a rash :( so I'm bringing this along just in case

Other things you may want to consider for your trip:

• Metamucil and Senokot-if you are planning on eating a diet extremely different from your regular home routine and are worried about constipation

Every person, type of trip and country you travel to have different risks and requirements, so make sure to look into this several months before you depart.
Happy Travels!
-A