Health, vaccinations and medical care in Honduras

Care

• State hospitals are underfunded and short of medicines. Use a private clinic in a major town; they are better and they are expensive.
• Take insurance covering treatment and evacuation, and carry evidence of it - you may be asked to show cover before treatment starts.
• The Bay Islands have clinics, not hospitals. Anything serious means a flight to the mainland or to the United States.

If you dive

• There is a decompression chamber on Roatan, which is one of the reasons the island is a serious dive destination rather than just a pretty one.
• Check your travel insurance covers diving. Standard policies frequently exclude it, or cap it at a depth shallower than the course you have booked.

Water and food

• Tap water is not generally safe to drink. Bottled water is cheap and everywhere.
• Ice in tourist restaurants is usually made from purified water; in a village it may not be.

Mosquitoes

• Dengue, Zika and malaria are all present, and dengue is the common one. The mosquito bites in daylight.
• Malaria risk is mainly in the lowlands, the north coast and the Bay Islands - which is not what people expect of a beach island.
• Yellow fever vaccination may be required if you arrive from a country with transmission risk.

Altitude

• The interior is mountainous and altitude sickness is a risk in parts of the country.

Numbers

• 911 for an ambulance, and it is the general emergency number.