The Road Book : Health requirements

Health requirements

Cuba is not that close so it’s quite natural to wonder about health issues and precautions to take to avoid any potential health problems.

Health Insurance

Since 2010, it is mandatory for the travelers to subscribe to an insurance covering the potential medical expenses and the repatriation. If you have not subscribed to an insurance before your departure, you will have to do so at your arrival in Cuba. A supporting document you will be asked.

Vaccines and diseases

No vaccine is mandatory. However, it may recommend a few conventional vaccines for any traveler from the northern hemisphere.

– Universal Vaccination, recommended for Europe, must be updated: tetanus, polio, diphtheria, hepatitis B and Pertussis.

– Vaccine against typhoid and hepatitis A.

Finally, as everywhere in the Caribbean, avoid skin to skin contact with the sand beaches frequented by dogs: risk of Larva Migrans, not very serious but annoying and that causes itching.

Food hygiene

The water hygiene and food would be formally perfect. But for safety reasons:

– Consume fruits and vegetables unless they can be peeled, if they have been properly washed or, of course, if cooked;

– We recommend you to request the meat to be cooked and served piping hot.

– No problem for the fish consumed in restaurants, but do not eat, without proper authorization, any product of its fishing : risk of poisoning (ciguatera) by large fish such as Barracuda, Trevally, Moray or Grouper, as throughout the Caribbean ;

– Consume without moderation the delicious Cuban lobsters and other crustaceans, but refrain from eating shellfish (unless they are caught away from the coast);

– If tap water is not hazardous, we won’t recommend you to drink it. As in all Latin American countries, better drink bottled water in sealed bottle.