Health, vaccinations and medical care in Kuwait

The medicines rule

• All visitors must obtain permission from the Kuwaiti authorities to carry certain prescription drugs before arrival. This is a newer rule than most published advice reflects, and many common medications require it.
• Do this weeks ahead. Check the specific drug with the Kuwaiti embassy or the Ministry of Health, carry the permission, the prescription and the medicine in its original packaging together.
• There is no way to fix this at the airport.

Care and cost

• Kuwait has state clinics and private hospitals, and the private ones are good.
• Private medical fees are high and are set by the government, which has increased them for foreign residents and visitors. This is not a market you can shop around in.
• Take insurance covering treatment and repatriation, and have accessible funds.

Air quality

• Poor outdoor air quality is a specific risk in Kuwait, which the FCDO flags directly - a combination of dust, oil industry and traffic.
• Dust storms can close the airport and make a week outdoors unpleasant.
• If you are asthmatic, bring what you need - and check whether it is on the permission list.

Heat

• Kuwait is one of the hottest inhabited places on earth. Summer regularly passes 50 C and the record is above that.
• Between May and September, outdoor activity in the middle of the day is genuinely dangerous. The country lives indoors and at night.

Numbers

• 112 for an ambulance, and it is the general emergency number - not 999.