Health, vaccinations and medical care in Ghana

Yellow fever

• The certificate is a border requirement, checked on arrival, not a recommendation.
• If you arrive without one, the airport vaccinates at 20 US dollars, the same price for Ghanaian and foreign nationals. That is a published rate rather than a negotiation, but it is also a delay and an injection you did not plan, so get it at home.
• Port Health, which handles the vaccination at Kotoka, is in Terminal 3.

The other risks the FCDO names

• Malaria, countrywide. Start the prophylaxis before you travel, not on arrival.
• Dengue, which no tablet prevents, so it comes down to repellent and covered arms at dawn and dusk.
• Marburg virus. Ghana declared the end of its 2022 outbreak in September 2022, so this is background rather than a current alert, but it is on the list.
• See a travel clinic at least 8 weeks before departure, which is the window vaccine courses actually need.

Care on the ground

• Medical facilities are poor outside towns. For anything serious, medical evacuation will be necessary.
• Insurance has to cover evacuation and repatriation, with accessible funds, because a policy that pays a hospital later does not get you onto an air ambulance now.
• The airport clinic is 500 metres from the terminal and open 24 hours, dental, physiotherapy, paediatric and gynaecology included, and it is open to the general public.