Welcome to Travelturtle, the travel health advice site that provides you with country specific medical and vaccination reports usually only available to registered UK healthcare professionals.
Use this page to access key information in regards to asthma travel advice, and travelling with asthma.
- Find comprehensive guides to asthma abroad, including safety tips and what to pack.
- Find a full guide on tips to follow to avoid an asthma attack abroad.
- More travel advice for asthma sufferers come under the guise of advice on coping with foreign environments, and conditioning to variants like altitude and depth.
Asthma |
When travelling with asthma avoid - running out of medication overseas
- travelling to highly polluted destinations without advice and planning
- scuba diving
- travelling during a flare-up
To stay safe with asthma overseas, patients should: - take spare medication and keep some in hand luggage.
- be aware of climatic conditions and cold, polluted or ozone-filled air.
- avoid physical activity until they have acclimatised to local conditions.
- take a spacer and inhaler as an alternative to a nebuliser.
- visit their GP or specialist to review their asthma before they go.
- discuss a management plan so they are aware of how to respond to a worsening of their asthma or a full asthma attack abroad; they may need to take steroids with them
- consider using a peak flow meter so they can monitor their asthma when away
- check on their destination's climate and levels of pollution
- make sure they are protected against flu whatever the time of the year as the timings of the epidemics vary in different parts of the world.
Getting there - Oxygen levels are reduced on aeroplanes although this will only affect people whose asthma is particularly severe. Patients should seek permission to use nebulisers and make a request for oxygen in advance of their flight.
- Patients should keep medication with them in hand luggage at all times.
Climate and environment - Cold air can set off asthma, so in mountains or cold destinations patients should be prepared to increase use of preventive medication.
- Pollution is a problem in many cities in Asia and some in Latin America such as Mexico City. Patients should be aware of extra risks such as burning of rainforest in Indonesia or Borneo.
- Patients should watch out for increased ozone on hot summer days.
- Hot dry conditions such as deserts can often have a beneficial effect on asthma.
Altitude and depth - In general people with asthma will have no greater tendency to suffer the effects of altitude or acute mountain sickness than others.
- But over-exertion can cause exercise-induced asthma to worsen.
- High altitude may also alter the performance of inhalers.
- People with asthma should not go diving.
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