Staying Healthy Abroad: A Global Traveler's Guide

On the one hand, this book by Sanford (family medicine & global health, Univ. of Washington, Seattle) is wonderfully written, factual, and humorous; on the other, it will not only scare the bejesus out of the average traveler but cause one to limit any overseas adventures only to Belgium. It does have useful information for basic travelers, but some of it may be over their heads. Specific dosages and drug interactions, etc. might be better appreciated by a general practitioner or internist. There are lots of scary things in what this tropical medicine physician calls "low-income" countries: civil wars, pandemics, microscopic creatures in swimming water, sex industry workers with STDs, local clinics that reuse needles, improperly washed lettuce, hungry lions, etc. The good news is that Sanford doesn't discourage readers from veering off the main path. He just stresses getting their shots ahead of time and using common sense: don't pet stray dogs in impoverished countries, don't do recreational drugs in Thailand, don't scuba dive if you're pregnant, and don't look for gay sex in Muslim countries or Uganda. Easy.