Health, vaccinations and medical care in Nicaragua

Care, and paying for it

• Public hospitals outside Managua are poorly equipped. Some Managua facilities are considerably better.
• Private healthcare is the safer option and demands payment up front, typically in cash. That is the FCDO's own wording, and it is the practical reason to carry a reserve of dollars and to know your insurer's number.
• Take insurance covering treatment and medical evacuation. Evacuation from the Corn Islands or the Caribbean coast is slow and expensive.
• Contact the insurer immediately if you are referred anywhere.

Water and food

• Drink bottled or filtered water. It is cheap and universal.
• Ice in tourist places is generally purified; elsewhere, ask.

Mosquitoes

• Dengue, Zika and malaria are all present. Dengue is the common one and the mosquito bites in daylight.
• Repellent during the day, and a net or a fan at night.

The heat

• Nicaragua is hot. Leon and Granada in the dry season are genuinely punishing in the middle of the day, and the colonial architecture provides very little shade.
• Volcano climbs start early for this reason, not for the view.

Numbers

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