In this blog I will discuss the three most frequent medical occurrences that happen when foreigners are visiting or living in The Philippines.
To start I don’t have hard numbers on what I am about to discuss but I am going off of experience and the 100s of foreigners I have met throughout the years. So without further ado the first thing that I hear about often is food posioning or getting severely sick from the water.
To start I don’t have hard numbers on what I am about to discuss but I am going off of experience and the 100s of foreigners I have met throughout the years. So without further ado the first thing that I hear about often is food poisoning or getting severely sick from the water to the point of being hospitalized. These things are usually easily avoidable like for example sticking to bottled water and not eating street food. I think the one thing that gets people is ice. Ice may or not be filtered and can be dirty and full of bacteria. Stick to a cold bottle of ice water. Brush your teeth with bottled water and you should be fine. My first 90 days in the Philippines was spent often in the bathroom but luckily not in the hospital.
So the second thing is Dengue Fever, now I don’t have any stats on foreigners getting Dengue but I know of at least 20 or so in the last year that have ended up in the hospital because of it. The crazy thing is that they didn’t even go into the jungle this was just being in Cebu City or even Manila. (Dengue is caused by the dengue virus. This virus is in most tropical and subtropical parts of the world. It’s most common in Southeast Asia. When a mosquito bites an infected person, it picks up the virus and gives it to the next person it bites). In 2023 there were ss of 2 December 2023, a total of 195,603 dengue cases have been reported. So it is a real threat even for foreigners who are not trekking through the jungles.
The last reason to get travel medical insurance and the most common are motorbike accidents. The problem is that most foreigners just don’t have extensive experience driving here and don’t know what to expect. The rules often don’t seem to apply as far as on the road ways. It can sometimes be a free for all and also the rental bike helmets often don’t have a working chin strap and are the cheapest of cheap helmets made out of Styrofoam. Before you rent a bike in the Philippines make sure the tires are ok and the brakes are in working condition before driving away. I have known guys who have passed away here from bike accidents, extremely serious accidents requiring multiple surgeries and minor just with scrapes and bruises. So because of these three things I think it is extremely important to carry Travel medical insurance and the one I personally recommend and have personally used is Safety Wing. You can get a quote today by clicking the link below. Don’t take a chance and skip the travel medical insurance especially since it is very affordable.
