Health, vaccinations and medical care in Uzbekistan

What the system is like

• State hospitals are free at the point of emergency and are basic. Equipment, supplies and hygiene are not at the standard a European or North American visitor expects.
• Private clinics in Tashkent are the answer for anything serious, and several are used to foreign patients and insurance paperwork.
• Outside Tashkent, care thins quickly. Samarkand and Bukhara have workable private clinics; Nukus, Khiva and the desert do not.
• You pay up front, in cash, and claim afterwards. Bring the money or a card that works, and get an itemised receipt.

Insurance

• Take a policy that covers medical evacuation. For anything major the realistic treatment plan is a flight to Tashkent and then, possibly, out of the country.
• Check that it covers the activities you have planned - trekking in the Chimgan mountains, desert trips, motorcycling.
• Call the insurer before you consent to treatment wherever there is time.

Before you go

• Ask a travel clinic about hepatitis A and typhoid, both of which are routine recommendations for Uzbekistan, and make sure tetanus and MMR are current.
• Rabies is present, and stray dogs are common in the old towns. A bite or a lick on broken skin means treatment the same day, and post-exposure vaccine is not reliably available outside Tashkent.
• There is no malaria in Uzbekistan.
• Bring your own prescription medicines with the prescription. Pharmacies are well stocked with local brands and will not have yours.

Food and water

• Do not drink the tap water. Bottled water is cheap and universal.
• Ice in restaurants in the cities is generally fine, and at a roadside stop is not.
• Stomach upsets are the near-universal visitor complaint, usually from the change of diet and the amount of oil rather than from contamination.
• The food is superb and heavy. Plov at lunchtime, when it is fresh, rather than in the evening when it has been sitting.
• Melons, apricots and grapes in summer are the best you will ever eat. Wash them yourself.

Heat and altitude

• Summer in the desert cities passes 40 degrees regularly. Sightseeing happens before 11:00 and after 17:00; the middle of the day is for lying down.
• There is very little shade at the monuments. Hat, water, sunscreen, every day.
• The mountains north of Tashkent reach altitudes worth respecting if you are heading up to ski or trek.