Bodies

So getting ready for that overseas trip? There are some really important things you need to plan for your health before you go overseas.

The most important thing is to remember that Medicare doesn't cover you outside Australia. We do have reciprocal health care agreements with a few countries like Finland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom. For these reasons it is fairly important to take out travel insurance before you go.

The other important things you need to think about are the inoculations and other things you can do to protect yourself from the exotic diseases that might exisit in the countries you are visiting. Travel health clinics or your doctor can tell you what the requirements are for the countries you are visiting. Do it nice and early because some of the treatments require a series of injections that have to occur weeks apart.

The other thing you need to consider is your sexual safety while you are overseas. In lots of countries STDs are quite common and AIDS can be a major risk. Make sure that you take lots of condoms if you plan on having sex overseas, because they aren't always easy to come by.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has some good health alerts for every country too.