Have you considered what happens when you get a strange skin rash while traveling far away from medical care? I didn’t until I took a trip to Belize in 2005. My back was itching, so I took off my shirt to find this.
I didn’t know much about wilderness medicine at the time and had no idea it was just a simple heat rash.
Many of you might be in a similar position, having a strange rash, but not knowing what caused it. That’s a common condition in the developing world.
A handy solution I carry in my medical kit now is a cream like this one, available over the counter at almost all developing world pharmacies. I got this one in Mexico and it was about $1.50 US.
This cream contains a corticosteroid, an antifungal medicine, and an antibiotic. One of those three drugs should fix almost any dermatological condition you might have
I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. I’m just sharing something I’ve found handy that is an everyday medical solution in developing countries, but would require a prescription to get in the USA. It resides in all of my travel medical kits.
If you are looking for more information on similar topics, I have an entire section about remote and travel medicine in my book, Choose Adventure.
