Health, vaccinations and medical care in Belize

The thing that matters most

• Medical facilities in Belize are limited, and the FCDO says plainly that a serious case usually means evacuation to the United States, at the patient's expense.
• An air ambulance from Belize to Miami costs tens of thousands of dollars. This is the country where medical evacuation cover stops being a box you tick and becomes the actual reason to have insurance.
• Check your policy covers evacuation, and diving if you are diving. Standard travel policies frequently exclude it below a certain depth.

Medicines

• Availability of prescription medicine is unreliable. Bring what you need for the whole trip plus a margin, in original packaging.
• Do not plan to fill a prescription here.

Mosquitoes

• Dengue, Zika, chikungunya and malaria are all present. Dengue is the common one, and the mosquito bites in daylight.
• Malaria risk is rural, chiefly in the south and west, not on the cayes.
• Repellent day and night, and a fan or net where there is no screen.

Water and sun

• Drink bottled or filtered water. It is universally available.
• The sun on the reef is brutal and reflects off the water. Reef-safe sunscreen is required by some operators and is the decent thing regardless.

Numbers

• 911 for an ambulance.
• The hyperbaric chamber is on Ambergris Caye, which is a reason divers base themselves there rather than further south.