NO one expects to get sick on vacation. But some travelers fall ill or become injured while away from home, some severely enough to require medical care.
Carrying your medical information can increase the chances of getting effective treatment, experts say, because the doctor at your destination can familiarize himself quickly with it.
What information should you have? It depends on your health status, said Drs. Kathleen Cowling, an emergency physician at Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw, Mich., and Michael Herbst, medical director of the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital, Santa Monica.
Everyone should consider having this information on their person, the two doctors say:
* Name and contact information of your primary-care doctor.
* Medical insurance information and contact details.
* Immunization records, including travel immunizations.
* List of your current prescription medications, including generic and brand names, especially if you are traveling internationally. Brand names differ from country to country.
"In foreign countries, the same drug can go by a different name," Herbst says, "and it can be surprisingly difficult to figure out which is which."
Also note the dose, in milligrams, of each pill and how often you take it, Herbst says.
List relevant surgeries you have had. You probably wouldn't include a tonsillectomy when you were 10, Herbst says, but you should include procedures that still affect your health.
If you have chronic conditions, you need to tote more specifics, such as:
* Information about allergies to medicines, plants, latex and other chemicals and products.
* Information about other chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart problems. Note a description of the problem, when it was diagnosed and a description of the treatment.
* If you have a heart condition, a copy of your last electrocardiogram.
* If you have a pacemaker or defibrillator, information about when and why it was implanted, along with the anufacturer and model.
* If you have an artificial heart valve, information about when it was placed and why.
Carrying such information could be valuable, Herbst says, particularly "if you have had a complex medical past."
