apprenticeship

My wife and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in Belize, 3 days at Blancaneaux near San Ignacia and 3 days at Turtle Inn in Placencia, the first week in May. I've found some sites like www.MDTravelHealth.com that recommend taking Chloroquine for Malaria, along with vacinations for Hepatitis A, Typhoid, and to make sure your vacinations for Tetanus/Diptheria are current. I don't want to catch something while on vacation, but how paranoid do I need to be? Does anyone have any experience/recommendations as to what would be reasonable and prudent to consider?

On a related note, I assume we should drink bottled water whenever possible? What about ice cubes for some mixed drinks, do I have to avoid that also? Seems like ice at Blancaneaux and Turtle Inn would be appropriately filtered, would you agree?

Thanks everyone,

apprenticeship

msteacher

Better to discuss this with your doctor, but generally speaking you shouldn't need to take malaria pills or worry about the water. Most tourists to Belize do not take anti-malarials and are fine. For drinking water, I mostly stuck to bottled water but didn't worry about ice cubes, food preparation, etc. Belize is a clean and safe country, and you are staying in very nice resorts, so you shouldn't have any problems.

Pumpy

When in doubt, I always take malaria pills. Regardless of travel, not trying to sound like Dr Marcus Welby (sp?), you should always have your tetaus up to date. While Hep A is also a good idea when traveling abroad, I wouldn't worry too much about it going to Belize (we didn't.

eznmomma

Our doctor recommended taking all the pills and shots becuase Belize doesn't treat most of their water or spray for malaria and there is always the chance of getting bitten by the wrong mosquito or forgetting and drinking the wrong water. We drank water in the places that filtered their own water, which is probably in the resorts where you are staying, but we were very careful everywhere else, ice cubes, fruit, vegetable and all and had no problems.

hopefulist

I totally agree about the malaria, tetanus, and hep A; don't know about the typhoid shots. You're staying at 2 of the very most expensive places in the country - I think for the price the water (and ice) is safe.

ojoy

Check with a travel doctor or the CDC web-site for most up-to-date info. San Ignacio is out in the jungle and I'm assuming you will be going to Tikal while there, also in the jungle. I've always taken Malaria medications when recommended and never had a problem with them--neither have my kids. Better safe than sorry!

LanSluder

The water and ice at both Turtle Inn and Blancaneaux and are perfectly safe. I've been traveling in Belize extensively for over 15 years, rarely drink bottled water, drink local pipe water everywhere, eat and drink anything including food from street vendors and not once have gotten sick from water or food. I've stayed at Blancaneaux many times and Turtle Inn once, and I can't imagine any problem at those wonderful places. Of course, with bad luck you can get a stomach upset anywhere. I've had food poisoning in New Orleans and dysentery in New York.

As to chloroquine, the chances of getting malaria in either the Mountain Pine Ridge or Placencia are extremely slight, probably 1 in many thousands or tens of thousands. But even with such miniscule odds, I guess there's a school of thought that chloroquine is worth taking as it has virtually zero side effects for most people. I wouldn't, American expats living in Belize don't and most tourists going to those areas don't, but as low cost insurance against the odd lightning bolt from the sky, why not? There are about a 1000 cases of malaria reported annually in the *U.S.*

I do agree that it's always advisable to keep Hep A and B, tetanus and other basic sticks up to date, even if you never leave your home town.

--Lan Sluder